Class JEixmci, 

Book. 'B "^..^ 
Gopightl^»_ . 



4 



OLD FRANCE IN THE 
NEW WORLD 

QUEBEC 
IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 



BY 

JAMES DOUGLAS, LL.D. 



THE BURROWS BROTHERS COMPANY 
1905 



All rights reserved 



Copyright, 1905, by James Douglas 




Two O0PI6S iiecttv»xj 

SEPn 14 1905 
/26 2^ 3 




PREFACE. 



A large library always reminds me painfully of a grave- 
yard, and the rows of neglected books on its shelves of grave- 
stones. They merely, in most instances, perpetuate the names 
of men and women who have passed as completely out of the 
world's ken as the multitudes, whose existence on our planet 
is recorded on the mouldering stone by a name and two dates. 
Here and there is a book which is occasionally opened, just as 
here and there in our graveyards is a monument which marks the 
last resting place of some one famous for a deed which made his 
life conspicuous among the thousands who lived and died with- 
out leaving a sensible impression on their generation. And 
even these nonentities were in most instances less presumptu- 
ous than the unread author; for they would have hesitated to 
appraise the importance of their own past lives at even the 
value of a tombstone. It was the dead man's friends who, after 
he had gone, thus endeavored to perpetuate the fleeting mem- 
ory of a vanished shadow. But the man who publishes his 
own book is vain enough to erect his own gravestone, and 
inscribe on it his own epitaph, and therefore he must not complain 
if it Hes as neglected on the library shelf as the crumbling stones 
erected over the graves of insignificant people in our cemeteries. 

Nevertheless, men and women will continue to write books, 
believing that they are adding something to the world's stock 
of truth. Should the world think otherwise, they can at least 
derive some solace from the thought (if they have paid their 
bills) that they have given remunerative occupation to the printer 
and bookbinder. 

Should the above be the fate of my book, it is unkind to 
bury the names of friends with my own. Yet I cannot refrain 
from thanking the Abbe Scott, not only for permitting me to 



copy maps from his interesting- history of the Parish of St. 
Foy, but even lending me the block of the Portrait of Com- 
mander Sillery; Colonel Neilson for supplying more than one 
of my illustrations from his valuable collection of Jesuit 
memorabilia, secured by his great-grandfather v^hen the Jesuit 
Estates were sold in 1800; Mr. George lies and Mr. W. D. Le 
Sueur for reading my proof sheets; and the Burrows Com- 
pany for being willing to strike off copies of some of the inter- 
esting illustrations made for their edition of the Jesuit Rela- 
tions. In my book there are doubtless avoidable and unavoid- 
able mistakes, and many of my friends will charge me with 
errors of judgment and opinion. I cannot claim to have had 
access to unpublished documents, but I have tried to derive 
my facts and my inspirations from original published sources. 

The history of Canada was, during the period we have re- 
viewed, indissolubly associated with that of Quebec, and it con- 
tinued so to be during the remaining half century of the French 
Regime. Such books as Sir Gilbert Parker's " In Old Quebec," 
and the more critical description of the city, " Quebec Under 
Two Flags," by Messrs. Doughty and Dionne, blend of neces- 
sity the history of the country with that of the old town well 
into the period when the possession of Canada passed beyond 
the control of France. These books and others in the English 
language tell the story concisely and in a small compass, but 
none of them are written with the grace and literary skill which 
distinguish the many memoirs and histories written by French 
and French Canadian writers. 



CHAPTER I. 



Europe in America, or Old France and Old England in 
New France and New England* 

The undignified scramble in which the great powers of the 
world are now engaged for the possession of Africa and such 
islands of the sea as are still occupied by their aboriginal inhabi- 
tants, resembles in many of its aspects the race to occupy the New 
World, in which the maritime nations of the sixteenth century 
competed. To-day we call conquest "occupation," and the con- 
quered area, with its subjugated people, ''a sphere of influence." 
Yet the motives are the same — national aggrandizement and pri- 
vate gain — disguise them as we may under the cloak of a disin- 
terested desire to share the blessings of our advanced civilization 
with our less fortunate fellow men. Our civil methods are less 
cruel, and the evangelization of the savage is not now generally 
regarded as a function of the state ; but the actual wishes of the 
original occupants of the coveted territories, whether they be the 
blacks of Africa or the tawny children of Hawaii, are as super- 
ciliously disregarded by us as were the rights of the Indians of 
America by the faithful children of Spain, or certain of the Anglo- 
Saxon colonists of the North Atlantic coast and their descendants. 

Columbus' first memorable voyage was promoted by Spain 
Tinder the spur of rivalry with Portugal. This insignificant 
power, since the days of Prince Henry, had gradually crept 
round the African continent, and opened up trade by sea with 
India and with the mysterious empires of Cathay and Zepango. 
Marco Polo's strange adventures in these remote regions had 
remained so long — just two centuries — unconfirmed that his 
story had come to be regarded as a myth, and the land of the 
Great Khan a mirage. But Portugal's maritime achievements 
and subsequent mercantile success had not only converted a geo- 
graphical illusion into a reality, but had inspired into mediaeval 



8 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



commerce a new spirit, as irresistibly progressive as that with 
which the discovery of printing had reanimated the intellectual 
life of Europe. 

Just at this juncture Spain had been fused into a political 
unit and had sprung into a power of the first magnitude. The 
marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella had united in national wed- 
lock the kingdoms of Aragon and Castile, and had thus so com- 
bined and concentrated the resources of Spain that she was able 
to drive the Moors from her borders. This feat accomplished, 
and a strong patriotic spirit created, national pride could not 
brook the ignominy of beholding Little Portugal, a tiny strip on 
the Atlantic seaboard of the Iberian Peninsula, extending her 
domain beyond the sea. Spain was thus not only prepared but 
impelled to enter on a career of maritime discovery and foreign 
commerce. Portugal had sailed to the Orient by an Eastern 
course. The world is round and therefore the same Orient 
would be reached by sailing across the sea towards the West. 
Columbus is supposed to have taken counsel with the Florentine 
geographer Toscanelli, who had calculated the distance from the 
Iberian shore westward to the Island of Zepango (Japan) and to 
Cathay, the domain of the Grand Khan. No suspicion of inter- 
vening land seems to have disturbed his confidence or affected his 
calculations. How curiously wrong these calculations proved to 
be, and how stubbornly confident he was to the last in main- 
taining his mistake, are not the least interesting and pathetic inci- 
dents of this glorious era of geographical exploration, inaugurated 
by Portugal and consummated by Spain. 

Columbus made land on the Western Hemisphere on the 12th 
of October, 1492, and returned to Spain with specimens of the 
productions of his supposed Asiatic discovery. We know that he 
landed on one of the Windward Islands, and coasted along the 
shores of Cuba and San Domingo, and that a continent and thou- 
sands of miles of ocean lay between him and the object of his 
search. But the same confidence in his own judgment as has 
characterized the illustrious men, who have achieved great deeds 
and exerted profound influence in the world, prevented his correct- 
ing his own miscalculations and reading aright the plain facts of 



AX AGE OF GREAT NAVIGATORS. 



9 



his own and others' observation. Nevertheless, the very persistency 
of the fallacy stimulated the adventurers who, in vessels no larger 
than schooners and with mere handfuls of men, penetrated fear- 
lessly into the recesses of a New World, believing that it was the 
outskirts of that wonderful Asia, and that through it a waterway 
would be discovered leading directly to the goal.* When it came 
to be acknowledged that America was not China, and that nature 
had not cut a canal through its equatorial region, the search for 
a western passage was shifted northward. Even after Jacques 
Cartier had told the story of his winter sufferings at the head of 
a gradually contracting gulf, which receives the waters of the St. 
Lawrence, the hope was still cherished that this wide inland sea 
and the mighty river were a channel leading to the tropical climes 
and treasures' of Asia. The name La Chine, borne by a village a 
few miles west of Montreal, commemorates the fallacy. After 
Cartier's time the discovery of the Northwest Passage continued 
to be the object of search by many an Arctic explorer, from 
Frobisher to McClintock. All of these sturdy navigators endured 
hardships from sheer enthusiasm for geographical discovery ; for 
it was soon recognized that such a route, if discovered, would be 
commercially valueless. 

Cartier's thorough exploration of the St. Lawrence from its 
gulf to the head of navigation at the Lachine Rapids, and his 
minute description of the severe climate and scanty products of 
that remote region, not only quenched the last hope of a navigable 
ocean highway in the temperate zone direct to Asia, but deter- 
mined the limit beyond which private adventurers were not likely 
to be tempted to risk life and property in search of wealth. His 
second voyage, in 1535-1536, may therefore be considered as clos- 
ing the first great cycle of American discovery. 

Proud as we may be of our nineteenth century exploits, they 
sink into nothingness before the exuberant activity and mag- 
nificent results which rewarded the labors of the explorers of 
America during these brief forty-two years, which arc without a 

* The popular idea that he mistook the Island of Cuba for the main land is 
disproved by his letters to Saint Angel, and it seems probable that he knew, and 
acknowledged before he died, that he had discovered a new continent, though he 
did not appreciate its tme geographical position. 



10 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

parallel in the history of the world. In our own day, with steam, 
electricity, and a host of mechanical appliances and means at our 
command, with a much larger group of commercial nations 
jostling one another in the race for new markets, and a dozen 
religious sects competing for the conversion of the miUions of 
heathen inhabiting the Dark Continent, Africa has not been 
invaded with the speed and thoroughness with which America 
was ransacked by those little companies of Spanish cavaliers 
and other explorers, under the impulse of greed, glory and 
fanaticism. 

Judged by its results, the discovery of America was the most 
momentous event that the Christian era had witnessed. That it 
poured wealth into Europe and stimulated commerce, was of 
trifling importance, compared with the liberating influence which 
the adjusting of political and social life to the new conditions of 
a New World was to have on human policy and opinions. Yet it 
hardly produced a ripple on the contemporaneous thought and 
speculation of Europe. While the maritime nations whose 
shores were washed by the Atlantic were exploring America, 
the adventures of their seamen must have been the prominent 
topics of talk and speculation in their -seaports. We know that the 
disturbance of the balance of power which the growth of Spain 
occasioned engaged the anxious thoughts of European states- 
men; but the scanty and ill-preserved records of these daring 
voyagers are proof suflicient of the lethargy of the scholars 
and thinkers of Europe, a few geographers alone excepted, on this 
all-important subject. 

It was the period of religious reawakening, a reaction from the 
decay of faith, which had been the first fleeting consequence of 
the revival of learning. Men's minds were diverted from physi- 
cal and philological research to religious and metaphysical dis- 
cussions. One looks in vain, for instance, through the letters of 
the freest, broadest, most appreciative thinker of that or almost any 
other age, Erasmus, for any reflections on the tremendous, world- 
transforming events transpiring across the seas ; and one gives up 
the search with a keener and sadder sense than ever of the shal- 
lowness of human thought, and the narrowness of human vision. 



THE REVIVAL OF LETTERS. 



II 



The revival of learning had, in Southern Europe, exalted 
literature and art to the position religion had previously held, 
and shaken men's faith in the Christian creed and the code of 
morals based on it. The \'atican was as devoted to the worship 
of art as the Court of the Medici in Florence, and with the same 
results ; for however completely a true theory and love of the 
beautiful may harmonize with Christianity, unless sestheticism 
be kept rigidly subordinate to some higher motive, moral degen- 
eration seems to be its speedy and inevitable consequence. The 
most ardent champions of the Papacy do not deny the need that 
existed of moral reform during the Pontificates immediately pre- 
ceding and succeeding that of Leo X. The standard of art was 
never higher, nor its pursuit more lavishly encouraged. On the 
other hand the standard of morality was perhaps never lower, 
or the practice of vice more easily condoned. It was Italian 
luxury and laxity which shocked Martin Luther, the unsesthetic 
Erfurt monk, so seriously as to undermine his faith. It was 
Italian corruption, political, social and religious, which excited 
Savonarola to sacrifice his life in the cause of reform ; and it was 
the hollowness, hypocrisy, and undisguised license of the Church, 
under Italian inspiration and example, which Erasmus, himself a 
curious example of the contradictory tendencies of the age, essayed 
to stem by satire and sarcasm. Yet, despite the wide depart- 
ure of ecclesiastical practice from the simplicity of primitive 
Christianity, the influence of the Church was never greater on the 
political and social life of Europe than at this critical juncture. 

When Columbus sailed away from Palos in 1492, Alexander 
VI. of the house of Borgia had just been elevated to the Pontifi- 
cate (Aug. 2nd, 1492). He embodied the very genius of selfish 
family aggrandizement. In November, 1503, when Julius II., 
the warrior Pope, succeeded Alexander, Columbus was nearing 
the end of his fourth voyage and of his adventurous career, 
eating away his heart on the island of Jamaica, the victim of 
princely ingratitude and his own extravagant pretensions. 
Julius, during his pontificate, succeeded by masterly states- 
craft in arraying the powers of Europe against each other, with 
the distinct purpose of advancing the power of the Papacy. But 



14 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



tudes, were the direct agents of three European powers — Spain, 
Portugal, and France. The EngHsh colonists who followed were 
not sent forth by their Government, but they recognized fealty to 
it in a certain sense. As a consequence, the condition of Euro- 
pean politics determined in every case the fate of America. 

While the Spanish initiative in the discovery of America was 
the consequence of her sudden elevation to the rank of one of 
the Great Powers of Europe, the maintenance and extension of 
that position, especially when the Spanish King became also Em- 
peror of Germany, involved her in such costly wars that she was 
compelled to use her American conquests primarily as a source 
of treasure, partly won from the soil, and partly extorted from 
the unfortunate natives by cruel and oppressive measures. As the 
Spanish immigrants were not agriculturists, and therefore not, 
properly speaking, colonists, official tyranny, bureaucratic pride 
and political dishonesty became almost of necessity the features 
of Spanish rule. The vices of Old Spain were transplanted to 
the soil of America. They at once took deep root and have borne 
bitter fruit even to our own day. 

The supreme control claimed by and accorded to the Church 
was evinced in the Bull of Alexander VI. promulgated the year 
after the discovery, which allotted to Spain all lands west of 
a line drawn from North to South one hundred leagues west 
of the Azores and Cape Verde Islands. In the following year 
Spain and Portugal, by the treaty of Tordesillas, agreed that the 
line of demarcation between their future possessions should be 
three hundred and seventy leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands, 
and some years subsequently the Pope confirmed the treaty. Por- 
tugal therefore elected of necessity as her field of discovery the 
ocean to the north and south of the West India Islands; but the 
southern lands alone were those which she ultimately occupied. 
Cabral, in 1500, sailed for India, but driven on to the coast of 
Brazil, planted the flag of Portugal within the limit of Portugal's 
area, and founded Brazil — the only colony Portugal ever main- 
tained on the American continent. Cabral's discovery was fol- 
lowed by those of other navigators in these southern seas, notably 
by the explorations described by Amerigo Vespucci, whose letters, 



THE AWAKENING OF FRANCE. 



15 



if not his seamanship, won for him the honor of conferring his 
name on the New Continent. These tempting tropical lands, 
whose luxuriant vegetation fired the imagination with visions 
of wealth beneath the soil as prolific as the foliage which 
clothed it, stimulated Portugal to claim her heritage to the 
north as well as to the south of the equator, for the voy- 
ages of the Cabots had proved that, in that direction also, the 
land bulged eastward, so far as to throw it within the Portuguese 
sphere of occupation. She therefore sent forth two expeditions, 
one in 1^00 and another in 1501, under the Cortereals. But 
fortunately these navigators confirmed the Cabots' account of the 
repellent aspect of the country, and repressed all further enthusi- 
asm for exploration of a region where blustering winds made the 
sailor's life irksome, and a sterile coast, clad for many weary 
months in snow and ice, offered the explorer but scant induce- 
ment to land. North America was thus relieved from Portu- 
guese domination. What extent of the shore line of our Northern 
Continent John and Sebastian Cabot, and Caspar and Miguel 
Cortereal explored, it is beyond our province to discuss; but it 
is abundantly clear from the failure of either of such active mari- 
time powers as Portugal and England, in whose interest the navi- 
gators sailed, to hold or extend their discoveries, that little or no 
value was attached to what they had found. It is presumable that 
neither entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence, as otherwise England or 
Portugal would have sought by that channel a route to Cathay, and 
not have left to France the honor of making, a third of a century 
later, the most famous of all the great voyages for the discovery of 
a Northwest Passage. 

When the New Workl was revealed, France had only just 
thrown off the trammels of feudalism. Louis XL had made him- 
self really King of France, which was then territorially almost 
as we know it to-day. P)y cunning and by force, Burgundy, 
Franche Comte, Artois, Provence, Anjou, Roussillon had, in whole 
or in part, been brought under his rule. But France then and 
for several subsequent reigns had no navy, and but trifling for- 
eign trade and commerce. The duty of the last monarchs of the 
Valois line was royally fulfilled by maintaining control of con- 



l6 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

tiguous territory, and creating a French nation. Unfortunately, 
their ambitions phmged them into a succession of ItaHan wars, 
which strained their resources almost to the breaking point. 
Nevertheless, one benefit these foreign wars did confer. It was 
from jealousy and laudable rivalry of his life-long foe in the 
Italian struggle, Charles V., that Francis 1. was impelled to 
engage in maritime enterprises, and to seize his share of that New 
World, which was pouring gold and silver by the shipload into 
the Spanish treasury. ''Ah, well," this pleasure-loving but 
shrewd monarch is credited with saying, ''the Kings of Spain 
and Portugal are dividing coolly the New World between them 
without offering their poor brother a share. I should like to see 
the clause of Adam's will which bequeathed to them this vast 
heritage." 

Charles V. used his ships as fighting machines in the Medi- 
terranean, as well as for purposes of commerce in the Spanish 
Main and the Pacific ; and Francis I. was too acute a soldier and 
politician not to appreciate the immense advantage which this 
possession of sea power gave the Emperor in his Italian cam- 
paign. The imperative necessity therefore lay on him of provid- 
ing France with a navy, and of encouraging private maritime 
enterprises. His hatred of Charles V. induced him to resort to 
disgraceful shifts ; but it was the commercial treaty and political 
alliance which he made with the Turks under Soliman IL, in 
order to thwart the noble efforts of the brilliant and much harassed 
Emperor, who had just freed the Mediterranean from the scourge 
of Tunisian and Algerian pirates, that awakened France to the 
value and possibility of embarking successfully in foreign trade. 
To the same stimulus must be attributed the sending forth of the 
three expeditions to America under Verazzano, as well as those 
under Jacques Carrier and Roberval. 

When France attempted to govern in the New World she 
imitated Spain more or less in form, but not in spirit. The 
climatic conditions of the territory she occupied, as well as the 
natural temperament of her colonists and the classes from which 
they were drawn, produced a distinct type of colony. The home 
Government designed to engraft the French bureaucratic system 



FRENCH AND ENGLISH COLONIES. 



17 



on the colonial stock, and even transferred to the forests of Canada 
all that remained of the feudal customs and land tenure. Her 
colonial policy was to duplicate as nearly as possible Old France 
in New France, and to check spontaneous colonial development 
in strange and untried directions. 

The English colonies, on the other hand, having been founded 
as private enterprises, some of them under the protection 
of Royal charters, were freer than those of Spain, Portugal, and 
France to work out, amidst their novel environments, an original 
system of government, and to form distinct social habits and 
customs ; and therefore though moulded on ancestral models, they 
were not direct reflections of European originals. Even the Eng- 
lish colonies, notwithstanding their greater independence of Eu- 
ropean control, were more or less affected by every complication 
of Old World politics. The successive wars between France, 
Holland, and England were waged on both sides of the At- 
lantic, and are referred to in colonial annals as King James' 
War, King William's War, and Queen Anne's War. Finally it 
was as a European war measure that France lent her aid to the 
revolting English colonies, and it was equally through English 
sympathy and her direct assistance, that the Spanish colonies 
were enabled to throw ofif the yoke of Spanish control. 

Furthermore, American life was from the first inoculated 
with the ecclesiastical and theological views of Europe in all 
their absoluteness and their acrimony. The monastic orders car- 
ried into New Spain their narrow creed and the Inquisition, 
though the Dominicans, who used so mercilessly and relentlessly 
this terrible engine for the suppression of heresy on both sides of 
the Atlantic, were the staunchcst protectors the poor Indians 
had against their oppressors. In New France the pretensions of| 
the Church were as vehemently asserted as in Old ; and the quarrel 
between Church and State was even more bitterly waged. In 
New England and in Virginia the contention between Puritan and 
Prelatist was as rife as in the old home from which the Round- 
heads and the Cavaliers had fled. 

Thus on the warp of European politics was woven the web 
of American history. And it has so happened that almost as 



l8 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

soon as European control was thrown off, and the American 
communities might have shaped out for themselves even more 
distinct types of political and social life than they have done, 
there set in that great revolution in economics, through the 
agency of steam and electricity, which is so rapidly knitting the 
world into a commercial whole and creating for it a common 
civiHzation. This revolution is rubbing down, if not obliterating, 
idiosyncrasies of national character. Through other causes, there- 
fore, than political control, America is still responding to the 
impulses of European hfe. On the other hand Europe is and has 
been vitally moved by America. But so intricate are the direct and 
reflex waves of influence, sweeping back and fro across the sea, 
that it will become more and more difficult to trace the origin of 
that unifying process, now in full progress. The study can, how- 
ever, best be made where the range of observation is limited. And 
certainly there is no community on this continent whose history so 
vividly illustrates as that of the City of Quebec, the passage from 
feudalism to modernism ; from government by autocracy to gov- 
ernment by popular vote; from feudal bureaucracy to English 
colonial rule, and then colonial independence; from ecclesiastical 
domination to ecclesiastical subordination. There also can be stu- 
died the racial peculiarities of two of the great peoples of the mod- 
ern world, passing from hostile antagonism into friendly rivalry, 
but evincing all the persistence of racial habits and institutions. 

In the T7th Century, to which the following study will be 
confined, we shall see how trade monopolies strangled the spon- 
taneous efforts of the colonists towards industrial and commercial 
enterprise, and drove the more adventurous spirits into illegal pur- 
suits of gain ; what a blighting eft'ect the refusal to the people of 
all participation in government had upon civic and national 
growth ; and how vain the attempt must ever be to reconcile eccle- 
siastical and civil authority, where representatives of each are 
combined in the administration of government. In the little town 
of Quebec all these experiments were tried, all these forces 
were in operation ; and the results can there be seen and studied to 
better purpose than on a larger field and under more complicated 
conditions. 



CHAPTER II. 



The Unsuccessful Attempt to Found the Quebec Colony 
Under Cartier and RobervaL 

Cartier's First Voyage. 

Though Cortereal's and Cabot's reports on the sterile north had 
not attracted colonists or treasure seekers, they did stimulate the 
fisher folk of Portugal, France and Spain to extend their quest for 
cod from Iceland to Labrador and Newfoundland across the Great 
Cod Banks, and even to penetrate the Gulf of the St. Law- 
rence. Exactly how far they ventured is a subject of dis- 
pute. Charlevoix tells us that as early as 1504 Basque, Norman 
and British sailors fished for cod on the Great Banks along the 
shores of Canada, and that in 1 507 Jean Denys of Honfleur made 
a map of the Gulf. He then repeats the stories of exploration 
of the upper river by Denys, Velasco and Aubert. But these 
vague traditions are of little value. The actual limits of previous 
exploration can probably be gathered inferentially, yet with more 
reliability, from Cartier's narrative. Certain localities on the 
east coast of Newfoundland and Labrador are by him referred 
to by names already assigned. But when he sails away south- 
ward from Port Brest, on the Labrador coast, and makes the 
northwest coast of Newfoundland ; and subsequently when he ex- 
plores the Magdalen Islands, and the shore of New Brunswick, he 
himself assigns names to most of the prominent geographical 
features. The inference is that the fishermen knew the shores 
of Newfoundland, the Straits of Belle Isle, and the Labrador coast 
for a short distance to the west, but that neither curiosity, nor 
adventure, nor the search for treasure, had induced them to jour- 
ney further than the abundance of cod and the pursuit of their 
calling tempted them. From his own hamlet of St. Malo, as well 
as from all the ports of Normandy, Brittany, Poitou, from the 
Basque Provinces of Spain, and from Portugal, hardy seamen had 



20 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

year after year, for decades past, struck fearlessly out into the 
angry Atlantic ; had tossed about while fishing on the banks, and, 
like their descendants of to-day, made the Newfoundland coast in 
search of bait and to cure their catch. All they knew he knew 
by hearsay, and perhaps, as rumor says, from personal experience 
during two fishing voyages ; consequently he was famiUar with 
all the known localities ; with the precautions to be taken for secur- 
ing the ships in winter, and in the breaking up of the ice in the 
spring ; and knew what stores should be laid in for barter with the 
natives. On the other hand, the migratory Indians, who had for 
over a generation traded with the fishermen of the Gulf, had either 
carried or disseminated by rumor so full a description of the white 
men and their ways throughout the whole valley of the St. Law- 
rence that, when Cartier ascended it, he excited neither the fear 
nor the astonishment with which the Spaniards were received in 
their early exploratory expeditions. These aboriginal hunters may 
also have interchanged with the Indians of Stadacona and Hoche- 
laga the seeds of those plants, indigenous to Europe, which Cartier 
subsequently found cultivated by those more advanced tribes. 

There is therefore no substantial reason to rob Cartier of the 
honor of being the first explorer from across the Atlantic to trace 
the course of the St. Lawrence from the sea to the head of its navi- 
gable waters. On the other hand, he was not, like Columbus or 
Cabot, steering for unknown, though conjectured land. Thus the 
landfall made by Cartier on his first voyage, the Cap de Bonne 
Vue, was a headland as well known to navigators then as it is 
to-day; as were also the headlands and inlets of the southeast 
coast of Labrador within the Straits of Belle Isle. But all beyond 
was mystery and a void which the imagination could fill with 
demons or with gold, as people's fancy impelled them. Perhaps 
Cartier thought the expansion of water within the narrow Straits 
—the Golf des Chateaux of Cartier and the early fishermen— was 
part of the great sea of Verrazzano, the Mare Indiciim, which a 
then recent map, that of the Vicomte Maggiolo, 1527, showed as 
occupying the space which the central part of our northern conti- 
nent fills, separated from the Atlantic by but a fringe of seaboard. 
This sea Cartier may have imagined he had already entered, once 



cartier's first voyage. 



21 



he had seen the Gulf expand beyond the range of sight within the 
Straits ; for this sea of undefined limits Verrazzano had laid down 
on his map, as he supposed he had seen it beyond the low sandy 
hillocks of the Carolina coast. Cartier, therefore, instead of keep- 
ing along the Labrador coast, sailed southward, hoping to get 
away from the ice and cold, and to navigate open waters through 
a more genial climate to the Orient, but nevertheless through that 
great river of which the Indians had probably given the French 
fishermen some vague conception. 

Of Cartier himself we know almost as little as of Columbus. 
In those days the genealogies of men of humble birth and calling, 
although they might have steered the whole world into unknown 
waters, were deemed unworthy of record. All that is certain is 
that the future sailor was born at Saint Malo, probably in 1494, 
and thus came into the world in the dawn of the day which 
was to usher in that new era of commercial progress with 
which his name was to be so honorably associated. By na- 
ture he was one of those restless spirits whom the past cannot 
content ; who are not satisfied to plod along the beaten paths 
and solid ground which their fathers had trodden before them; 
but who look impatiently onward and outward over the vast ocean, 
which they imagine wraps within its encircling embrace every 
mystery which the horizon conceals. We may therefore accept 
the probable, if unverified, testimony, that before he was forty 
he had made three voyages across the North Atlantic, and ex- 
perienced the keen excitements of the fisherman's life, and had, 
in the employ either of Portugal, or of Francis I., taken part 
in an expedition to Brazil. The inference is that he had learned, 
not only the rougher tasks and functions of the sailor's calling, 
but had been educated in its more recondite secrets, for the 
general accuracy of his o1)servations, as set down on his three 
voyages, bespeaks the scientific navigator. Had he not indeed 
possessed a knowledge of the higher branches of the seaman's 
profession he would not have been selected to command the expe- 
dition which, on the 20th of .'\pril, 1534, in two ships of about 
60 tons each manned by sixty-one men, sailed away from Saint 
Malo, after Messieurs Charles de Moiiy, sieur de la Milleraye, 



22 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. . 

and Vice Admiral of France, had administered an oath to the 
captain, saihng masters and sailors, binding them to comport 
themselves as true and faithful men in the service of the most 
Christian King under his command. 

That first voyage in its incidents does not concern us, except in 
so far as it afforded preparatory experience for the second. The 
commentators and critics have not agreed in their identification of 
all the geographical spots described by Cartier, but it is generally 
considered that, after exploring the Labrador coast for about one 
hundred and fifty miles to the west of the Island of Brest, he 
returned to that well-known port; then struck across the west 
coast of Newfoundland, and skirted its rocky inlets and bold 
headlands till abreast of the Magdalen Islands ; threaded his way 
between these, and still proceeded westward, hoping perhaps to 
reach the more open waters of the Mare Indicum. Taking this 
course he sighted, instead. Prince Edward Island and the New 
Brunswick coast. This he cautiously followed to the north into 
the Bay des Chaleurs, to which he gave the name that still clings 
to it. Not finding a passage to the west from the head of this gulf 
or bay, he seems to have skirted the coast somewhat further ; when, 
still failing to find the outlet he was in search of, he steered north- 
erly, and passed to east or west of Anticosti before regaining the 
Labrador coast. Twice he speaks of looking for the passage. 
Was he really looking for an opening into Verrazzano's sea to 
the southwest ? At any rate, after crossing, probably unwittingly, 
the mouth of the river, he reached the Labrador coast and fol- 
lowed it to the east; though in crossing the head of the Gulf he 
traversed the open water, which he was looking for, towards the 
west. Then he followed the Labrador coast to the east, retracing 
his own steps for part of the way until he reached Blanc Sablon 
at the south end of the Straits of Belle Isle. Thence he sailed to 
France without further adventure, and with favoring winds 
reached Saint Malo on September 5th. As did Columbus on his 
first voyage, so Cartier took to Europe, as proof of the value — 
and very doubtful proof it was — of his discoveries, two Indian 
boys, who, it was asserted, were willingly entrusted to him by 
their father, a chief of the last district explored on the south 



cartier's second voyage. 



23 



shore, called Honguedo, probably Gaspe Basin. The youthful 
natives played a notable part in Cartier's second voyage, and it 
was probably from their information that he was then enabled to 
sail straight into the St. Lawrence. The writer of the second 
voyage admits that they had been forcibly taken and carried away 
against their will, and the will of their parents. 

Cartier's Second \'oyage. 

On Cartier's second voyage stormy weather scattered the fleet, 
which was not reunited until all three ships reached the rendezvous 
at Cape Blanc Sablon. The coast to the west of this was more or 
less familiar as far as Cape Thiennot, which was recognized as 
having been the scene of a friendly interview with the savages on 
the first voyage. Coasting some twenty miles further they 
anchored in Saint Nicholas Harbor, which Father Charlevoix 
says is the only spot which retained its name to his day, and then 
entered the maze of the Mingan Islands. At this point he learns 
from the two Indian lads, whom he had captured the year before, 
that Gaspe Basin lay to the south, and that the intervening land 
was an island — the same island they had partly explored on the 
first voyage and named Assumption. The youths also told them 
of the great river ahead, and of the Bourgade of Stadacona, and 
evinced an accurate knowledge of the geography of the upper St. 
Lawrence. Cartier discovered subsequently that his captives 
were of the same tribe as the Indians of Stadacona, and that one 
of Taignaogny's brothers was actually there. 

They coasted along the low sandy shores of Anticosti to its 
northwest extremity, saw the low lands of the southern shore of 
the St. Lawrence, and remarked the bolder character of the 
northern ; returned to it, and followed it to a group of islands 
(Seven Islands), evidently hoping to find a passage to the north, 
even after they had distinctly understood that a large river flowed 
from the west. The idea of a great sea, on which floated as islands 
all the land which they had hitherto explored to the north and 
south, seems to have possessed Cartier's mind. It was expressed, 
as we have seen, on the map of 1527; was confirmed doubtless by 
the rumors of the great inland lakes, which had beguiled the 



24 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



Spanish adventurers far to the South, and now tinctured all Car- 
tier's theories. Columbus before he died may have doubted 
whether America was part of the Asiatic continent, and Cartier's 
mistaken suppositions were partially corrected after he had reach- 
ed Hochelaga, and had seen the Lachine Rapids, and learned the 
precise distance of the great lakes, as we read in the letter of his 
nephew, Jacques Noel, in 1587. Before he died he would probably 
have revised the account of his own voyages as given by his 
historigrapher, and eliminated the mention of Canada as an island 
which so bewildered Father Charlevoix. According to Lescarbot, 
Francis L, in his commission to Jacques Cartier, prior to the third 
voyage, speaks of Cartier as having discovered the large countries 
of Canada and Hochelaga, making a part of Asia in the west 
They were, therefore, probably supposed to be islands floating in 
the great sea of Verrazzano (Berrendana). The delusion of a 
northwest passage, as we know, died very hard. 

We need not follow Cartier step by step up the river. As he 
approached his destination, the distinguishing landmarks are more 
correctly described and more easily identified : the Saguenay, 
the Isle aux Coudres (Hazel Nut Island), which Cartier calls 
*'the beginning of Canada," the Isle de Bacchus or Orleans, and at 
last *'a very fine and pleasant bay," which could be none other than 
that glorious expanse of water, with its beautiful setting of 
island, fertile shore, frowning cliffs and towering mountains — the 
Harbor of Quebec. He saw the promontory of Quebec first from 
one of Chief Donnecana's canoes, and on the fourteenth moored 
his ship between the sheltering banks of the little river Lievre or 
the brook Saint Michel, a mile or so above the mouth of the St. 
Charles, into which his ships had been carried by the ascending 
tide. His fleet had sailed out of the harbor of St. Malo on the 
9th of May, met at the rendezvous of Le Sablon, within the 
Straits of Belle Isle, on the 6th of July, and now on the 8th of 
September, escorted by a fleet of canoes, the first European came 
within sight of Stadacona. Cartier's first care upon approaching 
what he evidently regarded as the end of his voyage was to find 
safe winter quarters for his three small vessels. This he did on 
the 14th of September in the River St. Charles, which he named 



cartier's second voyage. 



25 



in honor of the saint day — the St. Croix. His three ships' were 
small craft, and were manned by crews of seventy-five men, the 
very signatures of seventy-four of whom have been preserved. 
We can calculate the size of the three ships, the "Hermine," the 
"Petite Hermine," and the "Emerillon," by accepting the displace- 
ment of Columbus' ship, the "Santa Maria," as 212 tons and its 
length as being 84 feet by 26 feet beam. The "Grand Hermine," 
of 106 tons, must have been 67 feet long by 23 feet beam; the 
"Petite Hermine," of 60 tons, must have been 57 feet by 17 feet 
beam, and the "Emerillon," of 40 tons, must have been 48 feet by 
15 feet beam.* 

The old mistake of supposing that Cartier anchored his ships 
and stowed them for winter quarters at the junction of the St, 
Croix and the St. Lawrence, some miles above Quebec, is hardly 
worth contradicting. It is certain that, within a mile or so of 
the mouth of the St. Charles, a name substituted for that of St. 
Croix by the Recollet Fathers in honor of Charles des Boiies, 
father of the mission of that order in Canada, Cartier made prep- 
arations to pass the winter with his ships. At about half a mile 
from the mouth of the river its banks approach, and at this point 
there was in early days a ford, and later a bridge of boats. The 
present Dorchester Bridge, connecting Bridge street in the sub- 
urb of St. Roch with the Beauport Road, crosses the embouchure 
of the river at about 500 feet below the old ford, which was at the 
foot of Crown Street, near the Marine General Hospital. Above 
the ford the river describes a letter S, forming two long loops. 
At the turn of the first loop two brooks, the St. Michel and the 
Lairet, have cut their channels through the alluvial mud into the 
St. Charles. The tide rises to a depth of ten feet over the muddy 
bed of the St. Michel, and here, therefore, between its protect- 
ing banks, where, during low tide, the ships would rest safely on 
the soft, level, muddy bottom, and where neither the flood nor tlie 
ice floes would endanger their safety, was just such a refuge as 

♦The linear dimensions — viz., lenpth and beam — nre in proportion of the 
cube root of the tonnaf^e for similar models. The builders' old measure — B. O. M. — 
for determining tonnajre, is to multiply the length, minus three-fourths of (he 
breadth, by the breadth, the product by one-half the breadth, and then to divide 
by 94; the quotient is the tonnage. 



26 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



Cartier sought. That this was the scene of his first winter's suf- 
fering and disappointment is by some supposed to be confirmed 
by the finding, in 1843, by Mr. Joseph Hamel, the City Surveyor, 
of the timbers of a vessel of about the size of the 'Tetite Her- 
mine," just protruding from the mud at about 200 feet from the 
mouth of the creek. A division was made of what was recovered 
of her hull and tackle between the museum of the Literary and 
Historical Society of Quebec and that of St. Malo. The portion 
assigned to St. Malo is still to be seen there, but that deposited 
with the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec was destroyed, 
with nearly the whole of the Society's collection, in the fire of the 
Parliament Building in 1854. As we shall see, the "Petite Her- 
mine" had to be abandoned in the spring for lack of sailors to 
man her, twenty-five of Cartier's little company having succumbed 
to scurvy and privation during the weary and distressful winter 
months. 

After first caring for his ships, like the good sailor that he 
was, Cartier must have looked with uneasy foreboding on the 
scene surrounding him. He was encircled by swamp covered 
with a dense growth of dogwood, spruce and cedar, except where 
here and there a patch of swampy meadow refused to nourish 
even brushwood. The swamp extended southward to the 
base of the rocky ridge, which he could see terminated in the 
high bluff upon which Donnecana's stockade was built. The low 
lodges were of course hidden among the big trees covering 
the ridge. The same swampy ground stretched back some dis- 
tance from the banks of both the St. Charles and the St. Law- 
rence in distressing monotony, but with the advantage of en- 
abling him to see the approach of the Indians from almost every 
direction. To the north the land was covered with a dense forest 
of pine and hardwood, as it rose with a gentle slope to the base 
of the Laurentide Range. It was mid-September, and then, as 
now, the maples were clad in their gorgeous autumnal tints, 
in comparison with which the tropical forest, with all its vaunted 
wealth of foliage and flowers, is colorless. But this very splendor, 
due to a touch of the early frost, must have warned him to 
return, while there was yet time, and join the fishing fleet on 



cartier's second voyage. 



27 



its homeward voyage to Old France. The temptation may have 
been strong, but the enthusiasm of the explorer and the resolu- 
tion of the commander not to retreat until he had fulfilled his 
commission, for the execution of which he had laid in fifteen 
months' provisions, overcame the prudence of the navigator, 
The advancement of the season, therefore, merely stimulated his 
impatience to explore the river above Stadacona. 

When Cartier first entered the river, in the middle of August, 
his captive Indians told him that they were ascending to the 
great river of Hochelaga, and on the way to Canada, and that 
the river would gradually diminish in width as Canada was ap- 
proached, that its waters would become fresh, but that its source 
was so distant that no one to their knowledge had ever reached 
it. Hochelaga, consequently, became the possible goal of his 
expedition, and as soon as his tw^o large ships were safely moored, 
he began making preparations for this further exploration, for 
which he solicited the assistance of Donnecana and his tribesmen. 
Then commenced the first contest in northern latitudes between 
the will of the European and the wit and the finesse of the red- 
man. It was the first, but not the last, and the victory was then, 
as ever afterward, on the side of the man with the superior tools, 
whether ships, weapons of war, or railroads. 

The two captive lads now appear as prominent characters in 
the drama. On the approach of the ships to the east end of the 
island of Orleans they had left the ships with their compatriots 
after appeasing the fears of the Indians. Their superior knowl- 
edge, despite their youth, must have given them a prominent place 
in the council chamber of the tribe. They had spent eight and a 
half months in France, and though ignorant of the French lan- 
guage and puzzled by much they saw, they had learned to appre- 
ciate the power of their captors, and to doubt the unselfishness 
of their motives in thus intruding on their ancestral domain. 
They had noticed how very rlifferent the methods of trade pursued 
in France were from the simple system of barter with which they 
had previously been familiar, and they had, perhaps dimly, per- 
ceived the value attached to money, and the trials and hardships 
endured in earning it. They had seen the Malouin fishing smacks 



28 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



returning with the Terreneuvais, some weeks after their own ar- 
rival in France, for it is the wind of St. Frangois (Oct. 4th) that 
wafts them back to their homes. And two months or so before they 
themselves had sailed, they had seen these same fisher folk bid 
good-bye to the sad, white-capped matrons and little ones, and 
sail away on their perilous venture under the protection of the 
Holy Virgin, the ''Star of the Sea," before whose image on the 
great gate of St. Malo they offered their orisons. These fisher- 
men presumably combined with their maritime vocation that of 
the trader, and brought back peltries and seal skins bought 
from the Labrador and Newfoundland Indians, and at times a 
native or two. Taignoagny and Domagaya watched all this with 
Indian stolidity, seemingly indifferent to everything around them ; 
but they must have shrewdly decided either that trade with the 
French was a boon to be coveted, and therefore to be secured, 
exclusively, if possible, by themselves and their friends; 
or else that there was danger to be apprehended from 
these white men, their ships, their cannon and their seeming 
numbers. When, therefore, their advice was asked in the Council 
Lodge of Stadacona, it must have been given in favor of dis- 
couraging all further exploration and aggressiveness by these 
strangers, whether regarded as welcome guests or feared as 
future foes. Whatever the motive, the decision reached was 
that Cartier must be prevented from ascending the river to 
Hochelaga. The effusive friendliness of the first greeting was 
therefore succeeded by reserve. They would not approach the 
ships until Cartier had convinced them of his friendly intentions. 
They then objected to the display of weapons, whose dangerous 
character they had been informed of, but had not yet expe- 
rienced. They professed to be appeased only when Cartier, ap- 
pealing to his quondam captives, explained that gentlemen in 
France always carried their arms. Before separating the Cap- 
tain and Chief Donnecana renewed their protestations of friend- 
ship, and all of Donnecana's people gave three shouts in a loud 
voice terrible to hear. Thus ended, with fair words and false 
intentions, that first treaty between the whites and the North 
American Indians. 



cartier's second voyage. 



29 



The next day, the i6th of September, Cartier and his crew 
were busy making the two larger ships safe within the harbor 
and river, the smallest being left in the stream for the Hochelaga 
trip, when Donnecana and his two captives, with ten or twelve 
chiefs, came on board, while a multitude of 500 savages and men, 
women and children surrounded the ship. The chiefs were 
feasted and the usual presents given, after which the subject 
uppermost in the minds of all — the journey to Hochelaga — was 
broached. Taignoagny explained that Donnecana had forbidden 
him to accompany Cartier, as the river was dangerous ; but Cartier 
repeated his determination to go alone, even if Taignoagny should 
not accompany him, his instructions being to ascend the river, 
unless prevented by some insuperable obstacle, and that there- 
fore as far as Hochelaga he would go. The Indians returned 
discomfited to their lodges. 

On the 17th new tactics were resorted to by the savages. 
A girl and two boys, one of them said to be the brother of 
Taignoagny, were given Cartier as a bribe to induce him not to 
proceed. In return Cartier gave the Indians two swords and 
other trifles, but expressed anew his determination to see Hoche- 
laga. Failing by bribery, the sorely puzzled savages essayed 
fear. Two Indians disguised with horns were sent as emissaries 
of the great god Cudragny to warn Cartier of the perils of ice 
and snow which would beset him on his western journey ; but 
Cartier retorted that his priest had consulted Jesus, and that 
they were promised fine weather, with which assurance the In- 
dians were obliged to be satisfied. So the farce finished by Taig- 
noagny telling Cartier that he must proceed alone, as they were 
forbidden by Donnecana to accompany him. 

The priest, whose intercourse with the Deity was used as a 
counterpoise to the methods of the Indian god Cudragny, was 
probably as fictitious as the revelations which the red men al- 
leged to have been received from the latter. Nowhere else is his 
presence referred to. In the following winter, during the terrible 
visitation of scurvy, the narrative tells us that "our Captain, in 
view of the sickness and sufTcring, commanded all to pray, and 
had an image of the \'irgin exposed on a tree at an arrow flight 



30 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

from the fort, and he ordered mass to be said the following Sun- 
day, when all who could go, both sound and sick, went in proces- 
sion, singing the Penitential Psalms and the Litany, and praying 
the Virgin to intercede with the child Jesus for us. Having said 
mass, our Captain vowed to make a pilgrimage to Notre Dame de 
la Roquemada if God would permit him to return to France." If 
priests had been in the company, mass would not have been an ex- 
traordinary ceremony, and Cartier would not have himself offi- 
ciated. If mass was celebrated the consecration of the elements 
must, of course, have been omitted. On another occasion Cartier 
is said to have explained to the Indians through Taignoagny, 
when they wished to be baptized, that he would return, and 
would then bring priests and the holy oil with which the sacra- 
ment could be efficaciously administered. This they believed, as 
several young people had witnessed the ceremony in Brittany. 
Who were these several youths? If the passage is correctly 
reported, it would confirm the previous impression that the inter- 
course of the French with the Indians of the Gulf and of the 
Gulf Indians with those of the river had been intimate. The 
Abbe Faillon, in his ''Colonic Fran9aise en Canada," argues that 
Dom Guillaume le Breton, the Captain of the ship ''Emer- 
illon," and Dom Anthoine were priests, as the title *'Dom" is 
given to priests of the Order of Saint Benoit. But a priest would 
not likely be in command of a ship, and, had they been ecclesias- 
tics, their names would have been among the nobles at the head 
of the list of Cartier's crew, instead of at the foot. When Cartier 
made his first and second voyages, despite the pious formulas 
used, religious propagandism had not acquired the importance 
it attained when the Lutheran revolt had become more wide- 
spread, and Catholicism, under the stimulus of Loyola, had awak- 
ened to the necessity of reform. 

All being ready, Cartier set sail without his Indian guides to 
explore the river above Stadacona. The principal geographical 
features of the St. Lawrence between Quebec and Montreal are 
so much more distinctly marked, and the scenery is so much more 
contracted, that the identification of localities is easier than when 
we are dealing with Cartier's itinerary of the Gulf. The accuracy 



cartier's second voyage. 



31 



of his description of the upper river confirms the honesty 
of the narrative of the whole voyage and attests his powers 
of judicious observation. Both banks of the river above 
Stadacona seemed to be peopled by Indians who supplied him 
with fish and muskrats, and evinced no hostility. On the 28th, 
nine days after starting, they entered Lake St. Peter, and being 
unable to find a deep channel out of it, Cartier left the "Emer- 
illon" in charge of ten of her crew, and proceeded in the boat 
with twenty-six sailors, and with the gentlemen adventurers, and 
with Jalobert, the Captain of the "Petite Hermine," and the 
same Guillaume le Breton whom Faillon, on the ground of his 
being styled Dom, supposes to have been a priest. On October 2nd 
they reached Hochelaga, where one thousand savages were gath- 
ered on the banks to greet them "with all the fervor of a parent 
welcoming a child." They belonged to the Bourgade of Hoche- 
laga, the situation of which Cartier describes with much detail. 
Cartier gave to the mountain above the river, at whose base the 
stockaded village of Hochelaga then lay, and over which the com- 
mercial metropolis of Canada is now rapidly spreading, the name 
it still bears. And for once the matter-of-fact narrator breaks 
almost into enthusiasm, as he describes the glorious view which 
opened upon them as they ascended the mountain. But it must 
have been a disappointment to see the broad navigable river con- 
tract at the foaming rapids of Lachine, and hard to abandon all 
hope, however faint it may have been growing, that perchance it 
afforded a navigable waterway to China. 

On October 2nd Cartier, his noble companions, and his 
twenty-six men took leave of their savage friends. The Indians 
were sorry to see vanish these wonderful beings, with their metal 
weapons and ornaments, their fire-creating arquebuses, their 
curious musical instruments, and the magical control over disease, 
which, as medicine men, they seemed to possess and which they 
practised so generously. As their power to hurt or to helj) must 
have seemed irresistible, the desire to retain them as allies must 
have been no less strong than their dread of them as foes. The 
descent by the swift current above tidewater was easy. On the 
4th they rejoined the "Emerillon" on Lake St. Peter, and found 



32 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

that their companions had not been molested. They then 
returned to Stadacona, stopping only to explore the St. Mau- 
rice, which they thought might lead them into that mysteri- 
ous Saguenay country, whence they understood came the cop- 
per ornaments and weapons the Indians set such store by. This 
strange confusion between the Saguenay region and the Upper 
Lake Region runs throughout the whole narrative. On the nth 
of October they rejoined their fellows on the little affluent of the 
St. Croix, and found that during their absence they had built a 
stockaded fort and mounted on it the artillery from their ships. 
Champlain in the next century found the remains of the chimney 
near the little Lairet creek, and spoke of it as marking the site 
of this the first European habitation on these shores. 

Chief Donnecana, accompanied as usual by Taignoagny and 
Domagaya, made haste to pay a visit of ceremony and to invite 
Cartier to his poor abode. The invitation was accepted, and the 
visit paid on the following day, when Cartier, the chief pilot 
of his fleet, and fifty sailors marched half a league to the Demeur- 
ance of Stadacona, which was probably on the promontory over- 
looking the two rivers. The savages received him with the cus- 
tomary dances, and exhibited, as proofs of their valor, five dried 
scalps. They admitted at the same time that one of their war 
parties had been almost totally exterminated two years pre- 
viously on the St. Lawrence by the Toudamans — a tribe no com- 
mentator has been able to identify, though Lescarbot says that 
it occupied the country opposite the Batiscan, and in that case 
between the Bourgades of Stadacona and Hochelaga. If so, 
it was probably occupied by an offshoot of the Iroquois stock, 
among whose branches hostilities and jealousy were already 
brewing. What Donnecana had in view was probably to initiate 
a negotiation for an offensive alliance against their enemies. As 
Cartier did not respond, the coolness apparent in the subsequent 
conduct of the Indians may have dated from this ceremonial visit. 

Cartier devotes several chapters to the religious beliefs and 
some of the manners and customs of the Indians of Stadacona, 
but his observations were probably as imperfect as his deductions 
were certainly incorrect. Unfortunately, he gives no such vivid 



cartier's second voyage. 



33 



description of their stockades and lodges as that which enabled 
us to identify the Hochelaga Indians as a branch of the Huron 
stock. He dilates on their avidity for Christian conversion, and 
their desire for baptism, which, owing to their polygamous and 
otherwise immoral habits, he was forced to refuse them. All of 
which, considering the abstruseness of the subject, and his ig- 
norance of the language, compels us to believe that he must have 
drawn largely on his imagination, unless his two captives had, 
during their few months' enforced residence in France, become 
adept interpreters. It is not fair to assign the religious aspira- 
tions and efforts of the early explorers entirely to hypocritical 
motives, or to suppose their interest in the cause of religion assum- 
ed merely to stimulate the zeal of French supporters, and, in Car- 
tier's case, forward plans for another expedition. For it must not 
be forgotten that, despite the laxity of morals in Europe, there still 
remained some of the power of mediaeval Christianity, and that 
license in conduct and spasms of emotional piety were then, as in 
other times and places, strangely and incongruously associated. 
The life and character of Francis L, Cartier's patron, afford a 
glaring exemplification of this inconsistency. Cartier interlarded 
his narratives with a due allowance of traveller's tales about pig- 
mies and one-legged men and other monstrosities. Even so un- 
critical a commentator as Father Charlevoix expresses the opinion 
that these marvels are due to defective observ-ation, or a too excited 
imagination, or to the misunderstanding and exaggeration of the 
reports of others. They do not detract, however, from the in- 
trinsic credibility of the narrative in regard to matters of direct 
observation. 

Through the machinations of his quondam captives, so Cartier 
believed, the alienation of the Indians of Stadacona, or, as he 
expresses it, of Canada, assumed so grave and menacing an aspect 
that, fearing hostilities, he protected his fort by a deep ditch, a 
drawbridge, and a stronger palisade. lie tried to frighten the 
savages by blowing trumpets, and he made the utmost parade of 
his forces by changing watches. But no attack was made, and 
gradually the friendly relations were restored. There was jeal- 
ousy among the natives themselves, as we may judge from the 



34 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



fact that the warning he received of the suspected treachery of 
Donnecana was given by the chief of the neighboring vil- 
lage of Hogauchenda. Where that village was he does not 
tell us, but he says that in the district of Canada — that is, west of 
Isle aux Coudres — there were several communities hving in vil- 
lages not stockaded. His description carries us back to 
those eras and scenes in prehistoric America when the aborigines 
were struggling to rise out of abject savagery and work out 
an original system of civilization, only to be checked in its de- 
velopment in North America among the Iroquois, and summarily 
strangled in Mexico and Peru, by coming into contact with for- 
eign and uncongenial races. 

"To the west of the Island of Orleans," Cartier tells us, "there 
is a basin which forms a natural harbor, into which the river 
flows in a swift, deep current between high bluffs, and the soil on 
the shore is rich and cultivated. Here is built the town of Stada- 
cona and the lodges of Chief Donnecana, and of the two lads we 
captured on our first voyage. But before reaching Stadacona 
four villages are passed, those of the Ajoaste, the Sternatas, the 
Tailla, who have built on a hillside, and the Satadin." As that of 
the Tailla is distinguished as being built on a hill, we may presume 
that it alone stood on the south shore, the others on the Beauport 
Flats. "Then Stadacona is reached, beneath whose high bluffs 
towards the north is the river and harbor of St. Croix, where our 
ships lay high and dry from the i8th of September to the i6th of 
May, 1536. This place passed, the villages of Feguenonda and 
Hochalai are reached, the former on high land, the latter on a 
plain." All we know is that Hochalai was above Cap Rouge. 
On his third voyage in 1540 Cartier started on what he intended 
to be a preliminary survey of the St. Lawrence above the Lachine 
Rapids. After leaving their winter quarters at Cap Rouge, the 
narrative says, "they proceeded up the river, and the Captain paid 
a visit to the Lord of Hochalai, whose abode is between Canada 
and Hochelaga." The resemblance of the name Hochelaga and 
Hochalai stamps their inhabitants as belonging to Iroquois stock, 
if not to the Huron tribe. 

Whoever they were that inhabited the stretch of the Great 



cartier's second voyage. 



35 



River near Quebec, its topographical features made it as con- 
spicuously important to the Indian economist and strategist as it 
has proved to be ever since. The flats of the north shore and of 
the valley of the St. Charles are the first large areas of low cul- 
tivable land on that side as you ascend the river from the Atlantic. 
They were, therefore, selected as the most suitable site for a group 
of villages, while the heights of Quebec and Levis, contracting the 
river which flows between, gave the position strategical value 
as a vantage ground from which to watch the movements of 
friends or foes. Here, therefore, on one of the few cleared and 
cultivated spots in the boundless wilderness which had been for- 
ever, and was still, slumbering under the oppressive silence of 
almost unbroken forest, there were associated in communities men 
and women in sufiicient numbers and sufficiently advanced in art 
and intelligence to co-operate for peace and war, storing in sum- 
mer provisions for the winter, tilling the soil with small wooden 
implements not bigger than a sword, and raising corn, pumpkins 
and tobacco, which latter Cartier and his crew essayed to smoke 
but did not relish. When, therefore, the first white men ascended 
the river they found at and around Quebec a population which 
occupied a higher plane in the scale of civilization than the wan- 
dering, hunting tribes around them. This spot, therefore, so con- 
spicuous in later days, had an unwritten history of its own, but 
its annals are not recorded in even archaeological remains. 

The first chapter of tlie authentic story is a very sad one. 
Soon after the return of the exploring party winter set in. The 
ice grew thicker and thicker on the St. Charles, and snow fell 
deeper and deeper over the whole country. Fears must have 
seized the little company, almost the only European denizens on 
the whole continent, lest they should be buried in the beautiful, 
glittering masses which everywhere enveloped the world in their 
soft folds. It was so relentlessly cold that it must have seemed 
impossible that summer heat could ever again unlock the streams 
and melt the great drifts, which piled higher and higher over their 
ships and grew up into a wall whose combing summit towered 
above the stockade which thcv had erected as a defence against 
their suspicious neighbors. And as the December days shortened 



36 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



new horrors faced them. Disease broke out in the Bourgade of 
Stadacona — perhaps an epidemic caught from the Europeans, 
which found a congenial nidus in the Indian constitution and car- 
ried off fifty victims. Cartier forbade all intercourse between 
his men and the stricken savages, but ere long a new and terrible 
disease developed in his own company. From his description 
there can be no reasonable doubt that scurvy had broken out in 
his crew, probably occasioned by the cessation of all traffic in fish 
and fresh meats with the natives. There is no proof that it was 
the same disease which had ravaged the Indian village itself. 
Scurvy was, no doubt, prevalent during seasons of scarcity in 
Stadacona. The Indians suffered from it, and they also knew its 
cure; but it usually did not break out so early in the winter as 
December, for the summer supplies, despite the characteristic im- 
providence of the natives, would hardly then be exhausted, and the 
St. Charles would still be swarming with tommy-cod. The disease 
among Cartier's men made such havoc that by the middle of 
February, out of the two hundred and ten composing the crews 
of the three ships, there were only ten sound sailors. Eight had 
died, and the lives of fifty more were despaired of. One and 
another continued to fall ill, until there were but three strong 
enough to assist their helpless mates. Before the death list was 
closed twenty-five had died and lay unburied, stiff and stark, con* 
cealed in the snow drifts. To add to their despair, they began 
to fear lest the savages, becoming aware of their weakness, 
should attack and overwhelm them. To avert this con- 
jectured danger and hide their helplessness, Cartier drove 
them from the ship whenever they appeared, and thus, in 
his ignorance, deprived himself of the only available remedy 
— fresh food and vegetable diet. At length, one day, meeting 
Domagaya, who had been himself a sufiferer, he ascertained that 
the medicine by which the savage had been cured was a decoction 
of the boughs of annedda — probably the balsam. Two squaws 
were sent to collect the remedy and to make the necessary infusion, 
under the beneficial influence of which health speedily returned. 
The balsam, therefore, became a standard remedy for scurvy. 
Colston, in describing the hardships of the whalers of 1612 in 



cartier's second voyage 



37 



Newfoundland, tells us that divers died of scurvy, whereto turnips 
were an excellent remedy — not less efficacious than "Cartier's 
tree" (Prow^se's "History of Newfoundland," p. 128). 

Thus this first long winter spent by Europeans on the 
upper St. Lawrence wore aw^ay amidst distress and despair. 
But they were brave men, and bravely bore their terrible 
hardships. There is not a hint of insubordination. February, the 
shortest month of the year, is, in this semi-arctic region, the 
longest and dreariest; but in March the great change comes. 
Every Canadian can appreciate the revival of hope and courage 
as winter merged into spring, and snow and ice vanished, 
the glittering pall appearing to evaporate under the bright sun- 
shine as spontaneously as a fleecy cloud dissolves in the blue sum- 
mer sky. Their numbers had been so reduced that there were not 
men enough remaining to man the three ships, and the commander 
decided to abandon the "Petite Hermine." But was he to return 
with no spoils or evidence of success? The products so far of the 
costly journey were geographical information and very problem- 
atical promises of prospective gain from the fur trade. The palp- 
able results had been money spent, twenty-five men dead and one 
vessel abandoned. As a cargo he brought home neither gold nor 
silver nor precious stones. So he determined to carry with him the 
old Chief Donnecana, who could speak with authority of the fabu- 
lous resources in gold and rubies of the Saguenay, and of a white 
race which inhabited that mysterious country, and of the mon- 
strous beings who lived without food. Donnecana could also 
relate what he had himself seen of the still more marvelous land 
of Pequemains. where dwelt a one-legged race. Possibly he hoped 
to compel the old chief, if once his captive, to show him the site 
of the Saguenay treasures, so as to render his voyage somewhat 
more fruitful than it had so far been. Be the motive what 
it may, he devised a scheme to entrap the chief and his two 
former captives. The people of Stadacona, suspecting treachery, 
had ceased to visit the vessel. On the other hand, Cartier's appre- 
hensions had been excited by the unusual gathering of Indians 
at Stadacona, though tlicse, probably, w^re only parties of hunters 
returning from their winter chase. His fears of Donnecana were 



38 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



fanned by the insinuations of his new alhes, the inhabitants of 
Stadin — doubtless the same as the Satadin previously mentioned 
as the nearest village to Stadacona, in the chain of the unstockaded 
groups of lodges which lined the south shore. They, in return 
for their friendship, were allowed to dismantle the abandoned 
ship for the sake of its nails. 

In furtherance of his design against Donnecana, he opened 
negotiations with the wily Taignoagny, through his body servant, 
Charles Guyot, who was a favorite of Donnecana's and had been 
his guest. The ostensible subject of the negotiations was the 
capture and disposal of an obnoxious rival, a chief called Agona. 
Cartier assured the Stadaconians that his intentions were to carry 
to France no adults, but only youths, who would be instructed in 
the French language. Nevertheless, he expressed himself as 
willing to transport their enemy to an island off Newfoundland, 
where he would cease troubling them. Their apprehensions 
being thus allayed, Donnecana and others consented to at- 
tend the ceremony of the elevation of a high cross on the 3rd of 
May, the Feast of the Holy Cross. On the cross was inscribed, 
not Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews, but ''Franciscus Rex 
Dei Gratia Francorum Rex Regnat." 

After the ceremony the great men of the tribe accepted the 
invitation to a feast, during which Donnecana, two other chiefs, 
and Taignoagny and Domagaya, were seized. Until the ships 
sailed on the 6th of May the unfortunate captives, closely guarded, 
were allowed to have intercourse with their people, who were thus 
induced to supply them with food for the voyage. In return Car- 
tier distributed to their wives and children a few trifles; cheered 
them by the promise of a return the following spring; and then, 
with the remnant of his crew, sailed away. Their own con- 
sciences may have been easy. They were certainly thankful to 
escape ; but they left heavy hearts and streaming eyes on the banks 
of the St. Lawrence, and in the minds of the Indians a sense of 
wrong which may have been the source of the traditional hatred 
of the Iroquois against the French. Cartier but followed the ex- 
ample of Columbus and of others before him, as his example has 
so often been followed since by travelers and explorers, who have 



cartier's third voyage 



39 



not realized that, beneath the red or black skin, may beat as warm 
a heart as ever throbbed in the white man's bosom, and that, 
despite what may seem impassiveness, the family affections of the 
savages are their strongest emotions. In this instance, as 
often since on this continent, we have the pitiable sight of 
the civilized Christian playing the part of the savage — outwit- 
ting him in negotiation, and violating his rights by superior force, 
while raising over him the Cross of the Prince of Peace, and pre- 
tending to be actuated by motives of the purest philanthropy and 
religion. 

The return voyage was uneventful. Cartier sailed to the south 
of Newfoundland by the channel whose existence he merely sus- 
pected the year before, and cast anchor in the harbor of St. Male 
on the 1 6th of July. 

Cartier's Third Voyage. 

Cartier's report cannot have been encouraging, and it is 
not surprising that the Government did not enable him to ful- 
fill the promise given to the bereaved Indians that their chiefs 
and relations would be restored to them within twelve moons. 
That he himself indulged in any glowing forecast of the 
regions he had discovered and named New France is im- 
probable. He was honest enough to tell the truth. Had he 
not been, the truth could not have been suppressed ; for 
what his comrades endured must have been told, embellished with 
exaggerated details, and for proof of their story they had 
but to point to the twenty-five sorrowing households in the 
little Breton town. In the Introductory Dedication of the nar- 
rative of the second voyage to Francis I., the motives for further 
exploration were set forth. Foremost stands the duty of spread- 
ing the True Faith. As it originated in the East, traveled west- 
ward from Asia into Europe with the sun, it was, he said, ''the 
mission of the True Church to carry it still further westward to 
those far western wilds so as to embrace in her fold those western 
heathen to the confusion of the wicked Lutherans." But under- 
lying that pious motive was the dread of Spain's territorial ex- 
pansion in the Western Hemisphere and of her constant commer- 



40 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



cial growth, both of which France was ripe to emulate. Possibly 
this potent reason would have added sufficient weight to induce 
Cartier's royal master to divert some funds from his belligerent 
and amorous enterprises towards the equipment of a third expedi- 
tion, had not the clouds of war begun again to gather. There had 
been a long peace between Francis I. and his implacable enemy, 
Charles V. It had lasted from 1529 to 1536, as the result of the 
Treaty of Cambrai negotiated by Louise of Savoy, Francis' moth- 
er, and A/[argaret of Austria, Charles V's aunt, two clever women 
who had succeeded when professional diplomats had failed. But 
both had passed away, and their restraining influence over the 
revengeful passions of the King had died with them. And to the 
passion of revenge that of jealousy was soon added, for Charles' 
brilliant, disinterested and successful foray against the pirates of 
Algiers in 1535 had won him the plaudits and the thanks of 
Christendom, and increased his influence in the Mediterranean. 
These feelings had operated as an incentive to explora- 
tion when Cartier sailed out of St. Malo in 1635, but ere he re- 
turned in 1636 Francis I. had already invaded Italy, and Charles 
was massing his troops to enter Provence. Had Cartier planted 
his Cross as a sign of French sovereignty on a gold or a silver 
mine, instead of a snowdrift, the demands of war might have 
yielded to the claims of commerce. But as he could promise only 
the slight and uncertain gains of a trade in furs, it is not surpris- 
ing that the onerous expenditure and the all-absorbing excitement 
of a foreign war obscured the importance of his discovery, 
with the result that four years elapsed before he again sailed forth 
on his third voyage. By that time another hollow peace had been 
ratified between the two European sovereigns, with all the usual 
insincere demonstrations and formalities of affection and good 
faith. 

Meanwhile the unfortunate savages had been exhibited at 
Court ; instructed in the mysteries of the Faith ; baptized in 
the Cathedral of St. Malo on March 25, 1538; and had sickened 
and died. Only one — a girl — survived to see Cartier's ships set 
sail in 1641 for her old home. Cartier's previous voyages had 
proved, if not the full agricultural capabilities of the valley of the 



cartier's third voyage 



41 



St. Lawrence, at least the fertility of the land and the adaptation 
of the climate for the cultivation of certain valuable products. 
They had also admitted him to the portal of a vast region, which 
such Indian rumors as he had been able to interpret described as 
abounding in mineral wealth ; and this was the prize for which 
alone adventurers were willing to risk a fortune. The prospect, 
therefore, seemed to warrant the establishment of a colony, and 
the third expedition was consequently planned on a broader basis 
than the first and second. The accounts of the third expedition are, 
however, fragmentary. In the French archives there are certain 
patents appointing Roberval to the position of Lieutenant-General 
of the Army in Canada, Cartier to the post of Captain-General and 
Master Pilot; but the narrative of Cartier's voyage and that of 
Roberval exist only as a translation by Hakluyt, and the narrative 
of the first is broken off in the middle. The course of events seems 
to have been as follows: In January, 1540, Francis I. appointed 
Jean Francois de la Roque Seigneur de Roberval, a Picardy gen- 
tleman — who probably earned the distinction by contributing 
money for the expedition — Lord of Norembegue, and his Viceroy 
and Lieutenant-General of the armies in Canada, Hochelaga, 
Sagucnay, Newfoundland, Belle Isle, Cap Rouge, Labrador, the 
Great Bay and Baccalaos. The appointment was confirmed by let- 
ters patent under the hand and seal of the Dauphin in the follow- 
ing month. There is the usual preamble as to the religious motives 
for sending forth the expedition. By the same instrument the 
\^iceroy is permitted to enlist in the holy cause, from the prisons of 
Toulouse, Bordeaux, Rouen and Dijon, fifty prisoners under sen- 
tence of death — hardly the most fitting instruments for the Holy 
Work. The only condemned prisoners considered unfit were those 
under sentence for lesc-majeste, heresy and counterfeiting. There 
was so little public enthusiasm for the enterprise that Roberval 
found it impossible to fulfil tlic royal injunction to hasten his de- 
parture and sail in the spring of 1540. It was probably difficult to 
secure an able commander, for it was not until the 19th of the 
following October that Francis I. conferred on Cartier an inde- 
pendent commission as Captain-General and Master Pilot, without 
any reference to Roberval, instructing his bailiffs at the same time 



42 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



to supply him with the fifty criminals already promised to Rober- 
val, or perhaps an additional contingent. In the same patent he is 
authorized to keep his old ship the "Emerillon" as adourb to the 
fleet. On the 20th of October this commission was confirmed by 
the Dauphin, and additional instructions given as to the conditions 
on which the prisoners were to be selected. Such importance was 
attached to this jail delivery that one suspects it was an experi- 
ment made with a view of feeding the prospective colony with 
this troublesome element of French society, should it be found 
that change of environment produced in the transported convict a 
change of heart. Motives of economy can hardly have been the 
only incentive to a policy so fraught with danger to the enterprise. 

During the winter five ships were equipped, provisioned and 
manned for two years, but Roberval had been unable to collect 
the artillery and ammunition, without which he, as Lieutenant- 
General, could not fittingly assume command of the army. And 
therefore, as the King was impatient, Cartier set sail with the five 
ships from St. Malo on the 23rd of May, 1541, and Roberval went 
by land to Honfleur, whence he expected to proceed immediately 
with one or two ships and his armament. Stormy weather separ- 
ated the fleet, and a month was spent at the rendezvous at Carpont, 
near the mouth of the Straits of Belle Isle, by the first arrivals, 
waiting for their comrades and for Roberval. They employed 
their time in filling their water-casks, which had been so completely 
drained on the long voyage, that to save the domestic animals, 
which they were taking to stock the Canada farms, they had been 
obliged to share with them their cider and other strong beverages. 
It was the 23rd of August before they cast anchor in the harbor 
of Stadacona. 

Agona, Donnecana's old rival and after the capture his substi- 
tute, came off with some canoes full of men, women and children 
to welcome their king and their kinsfolk. But they were greeted 
with the news that Donnecana was dead, and that the other nine 
were so happy that they had refused to return. Cartier evidently 
did not expect that even the ignorant savages would be credulous 
enough to believe that their chief would forego his honors at home 
for the comforts of France. They feigned to believe the tale 



cartier's third voyage 



43 



that the other nine (eight of whom were really dead, and the ninth 
prudently detained at St. Malo) had refused to leave the palaces 
of France for their native lodges. Chief Agona displayed satisfac- 
tion, so Cartier surmised, at the death of his rival, and crowned the 
French commander with a chaplet of wampum. The latter never- 
theless judged it wise to give his doubtful friends a wider berth 
than on his previous voyage ; so, instead of again laying up his 
ships for winter in the St. Charles, he selected a harbor some nine 
miles above Quebec, where the stream had cut through the cliff, 
which extends as an unbroken wall from the Stadacona promon- 
tory to that point. It had probably been decided on as the site of 
the prospective colony, as Cap Rouge is specifically mentioned as 
one of the regions over which Roberval is to reign. Above the 
stream and its narrow stretch of enclosing meadow, then thickly 
covered with hardwood forest, the steep banks again confined 
the St. Lawrence, but the Cap Rouge stream which flows with 
so gentle a fall over the low divide, separating the Valley 
of the St. Lawrence from that of the St. Charles, leads to the 
belief that the depression was once a watery channel, and the 
ridge between Cap Rouge and Quebec an island. At the 
mouth of the stream Cartier safely moored three of his ships, 
leaving in the river the two which he proposed sending back to 
France. The site was one of the best he could have selected, for 
fertile land, fit for cultivation by his future colonists, extended 
along the river bank over the low divide into the beautiful carse 
of the St. Charles. He had probably discovered on his previous 
voyage that intimate intercourse between the Indians and his 
former well-disciplined crews was not conducive to either, good 
morals or good health : and as the men he now commanded con- 
sisted of far inferior material, and as, moreover, he had every 
reason to expect that his treachery would provoke reprisals, there 
were strong prudential reasons for establishing himself at a safe 
distance from the families of Donnecana and the other captives. 
As an additional inducement to select this side, Cap Rou,Q:e was 
near the Bourgade of Hochalai, whose chief had on the previous 
voyage shown himself not only friendlv to Cartier, but hostile to 
Donnecana, and would therefore probably barter food for trinkets 



44 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



during the coming winter. Having landed his artillery, he 
built a rude fort, and unloaded the ships which were to return 
to France. No time w^as wasted, and on the 2nd of September 
the two ships, under command of Mace Jalobert, his brother-in- 
law, and Etienne Noel, his nephew, set sail for France with news 
of what had been done, and of the non-arrival of the Viceroy. 
Cartier then set twenty men to work clearing an acre and a half 
of ground, and sowing it with turnips, while others cleared paths 
up the overhanging cliffs to the east, and built a fort on its summit 
to protect the colonists from attack by the Stadacona Indians. 
While cutting through the slates they found there the very 
regular and pure quartz crystals which still go by the name of 
**Cape Diamonds," but which they imagined to be the real gem, 
also some iron pyrites, or, more probably, scales of mica, which 
they mistook for gold. But Cartier had more important work to 
do than even gathering gold, alluring as that pursuit was. Before 
the winter set in he wished to make a preliminary exploration of 
the country above Hochelaga in order to see for himself the char- 
acter of the rapids which had to be passed in reaching what he 
supposed would be the headwaters of the Saguenay. Thus equip- 
ped with information he could, during the approaching winter, 
prepare for a summer exploration of the western country. So he 
started with two boats, leaving the fort under the command of the 
Viscount de Beaupre.* Both boats ascended to the foot of the 
first rapids, where one boat was left, but the current was so swift 
that they were unable to propel the single boat with which Cartier 
tried to proceed. He therefore landed and started to ascend the 
banks of the river, but soon desisted. As no mention is made of 
Hochelaga, in which he toolf so intense an interest on the previous 
journey, it is questionable whether the rapids he was attempting 
to scale were really those at Lachine, or whether he was ascending 
the Ottawa, or possibly even the St. Maurice. On his way up the 
river his former friend, the Lord of Hochalai, received him cordi- 
ally, and the Indians where he made his last halt gave him both 

* The account of this boat journey is so much less precise than that given 
during the second voyage of the expedition over the same ground that it seems im- 
probable that the same hand wrote the two narratives. 



roberval's failure 



45 



provisions and information. But on his return he found the Chief 
of Hochalai absent. He learned afterwards that he had descended 
to Stadacona to concert measures with Agona against the strang- 
ers. His original uneasiness was converted into apprehension on 
reaching Cap Rouge by the sullen behavior of the Indians, who 
ceased to bring provisions to the fort, and by the accounts given 
by some of the company who had gone to Stadacona of the gather- 
ing of the savages there, evidently with hostile intention. Here the 
narrative suddenly closes, and the next glimpse we get of Cartier 
is in the account of Roberval's outward voyage in the spring of 
1542. 

On the 2d of June, 1542, Roberval's fleet of three ships, carry- 
ing as colonists two hundred men, women and children, entered 
the port of St. Johns, Newfoundland, where he found seventeen 
fishing vessels. The writer of the fragment dealing with Rober- 
val's attempt to colonize Canada thus tells of the meeting of the 
Viceroy with his Pilot-General : "During our long detention in 
the Port of St. Johns, Jacques Cartier and his company entered 
the harbor on his return from Canada, whither he had been sent 
as the pioneer, with a fleet of five ships. When reporting to the 
General he told him that he was carrying back with him some 
diamonds and a quantity of gold ore which he had found in Can- 
ada. On the following Sunday we tested some of the ore and 
found it good.* He reported to our General that the scanty force 
he had could not successfully oppose the Indians, who prowled 
about their encampment and harassed them without cessation. 
On that account he was returning to France. Nevertheless he and 
all his company had only praise to bestow on the country they had 
abandoned, by reason of its fertility. But when our General, 
whose forces were ample, ordered him to return with him, Cartier 
and his comrades, inflated witli pride, and anxious to reap the 
glory of their discoveries, escaped secretly the following night, 
sailing away to Brittany unceremoniously, and witliout leave- 
taking." It would be an ignominious ending of a brilliant naval 
career if the incident was accurately recorcled. This reference, 

• If mica, it would have passed unaltered through such heat as they could 
apply. 



46 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



however, tells the tale of the winter's experience at Cap Rouge. 
The colonists probably did not suffer from the scurvy. Late as 
it was when the turnips were planted, the acre and a half must 
have yielded some crop. Moreover, Cartier had learned the 
efficacy of balsam leaves, and if he came to the determination 
early in the winter to abandon the attempted colonization, he 
doubtless converted the stock of farm cattle into food. Mean- 
while, instead of disease, he had to combat the ceaseless activity 
of the Indians, who, as was their wont, would pick off wanderers 
from the camp, and by their numbers must have made the com- 
mander anxious even as to the safety of his fort and of his ships ; 
for the Indians of the Upper St. Lawrence had united with 
those of Stadacona in harassing the settlers, as we infer from 
the warning given by the historian of Cartier's third voyage. 
After describing the cries and expressions of joy to which the 
Indians who had gathered at the foot of the rapids gave utterance 
on perceiving Cartier's presence, he adds : ''None the less, one 
must beware of all their charming demonstrations of pleasure, 
for they would fain have killed us, as we learned subsequently." 
It is no wonder, therefore, if, discouraged by Roberval's absence, 
alarmed by the gathering numbers and the open hostility of the 
natives, depressed by the gloom of the long winter, and anxious 
to reap as speedily as possible the glory and profits of his min- 
eral discoveries, he remanned his ships on the opening of naviga- 
tion and started for France ; and as little wonder that, once under 
way, with the vision of their happy St. Malo families and homes 
before them, and the Indian war whoops still ringing in their ears, 
Cartier's crew, if not Cartier himself, refused to return under a 
commander who, by his previous hesitation, inactivity and im- 
providence, made failure under his leadership a foregone con- 
clusion. 

While Cartier's five ships were thus on their way to France, 
Roberval and his two hundred colonists in their three ships were 
ascending the St. Lawrence under the pilotage of Jean Alphonse 
Xaintongeais. Toward the end of July the Governor-General 
landed his motley crew and their scanty stock of provisions at the 
mouth of the Cap Rouge rivulet, at the spot previously occupied by 



roberval's failure. 



47 



Cartier. His preparations were commenced on a much more sub- 
stantial scale than those of the cautious sea captain. On the site of 
Cartier's fort, on the heights overlooking the valley of Cap Rouge 
and the St. Lawrence, he built a fortification, which his enthusias- 
tic chronicler says "was beautiful to look upon, and of surprising 
strength, within which were two corps de logis dwelling rooms 
and an annex of forty-five by fifty feet in length, which contained 
divers chambers, a dining-room, a kitchen, offices, and two tiers 
of cellars. Near them he built a bakery and a mill, and dug a 
well." 

In the valley below he erected a two-story house in which to 
store the provisions he imprudently had not brought. And, having 
done all this, he renamed the country "France Prime," not being 
satisfied with the more euphonious name "La Nouvelle France," 
which Cartier had already given. On the 14th of September, find- 
ing probably that his provisions were already running short, he 
sent back to France two of the three ships, under command of 
Monsieur St. Terre and Mons. Guinecourt, with instructions to 
return laden with provisions the following spring, and to learn 
the value of certain mineral specimens, either sent in their care or 
previously carried to France by Cartier. Evidently Roberval's 
faith had become shaken, after further exploration, in the genuine- 
ness of Cartier's diamonds and gold found in the red shales of 
Cap Rouge. How many men were detailed for the two ships is 
not told, nor whether they were drafted from the better class of 
his company or from the criminal element. If, as was probable, 
they were drawn from the former, those who remained must have 
been as hopeless a lot of colonists as ever landed in Botany Bay. 
The ships had hardly left before the colony w^as put on short 
rations. For a time the Indians exchanged fish for trinkets, but 
when the winter set in fresh meats and vegetables failed, scurvy 
again attacked and carried off fifty of the miserable, half-starv^ed 
crew, who must have thought with regret of even the prison fare 
of France. For they were not men of the same stamp as Cartier's 
crew on his second voyage, nor did they bear their sufi^erings as 
heroically. Crime and punishment varied the monotony of their 
■winter's experience. One man, Michel Gaillon, was hanged for 



48 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



theft, he having the ignoble notoriety of being the first criminal 
executed in New France. Several were chained and imprisoned ; 
others, females as well as males, were whipped; and "by these 
means," the chronicler quaintly tells us, ''they were enabled to live 
in peace and quietness." 

The ice began to melt in April, but when spring re- 
turned, the General could muster only one hundred men, 
seventy of whom he took with him in eight boats to explore the 
province of Saguenay, leaving thirty to protect the fort and the 
ships, under the command of the Seigneur de Royeye. These thirty 
were to remain at their post until the first of July, when, if the 
expedition did not return, they were to be at liberty to sail to 
France in the two ships, or more probably one of the two, which he 
left them. As he was said to have arrived with three ships, and 
as he dispatched two to France on the September previous, and left 
two at Cap Rouge, he must have built one vessel at least during 
his nine months' residence at Cap Rouge, and thus inaugurated an 
industry which was in after days to become the principal support 
of Quebec during the winter months. Whither Roberval went is 
very doubtful. He makes no mention of Hochelaga, and therefore 
he probably did not ascend the St. Lawrence to the Ottawa. He 
probably attempted to explore the St. Maurice and thus reach the 
country of the Saguenay, which seems to have had such a fascina- 
tion for these early explorers, and the position of which was so 
little understood. Wherever he may have gone, this ex- 
ploratory expedition was evidently disastrous. It contained too 
many gentlemen to permit good discipline, for we are told that on 
the 14th of June four of these worthies returned, with others of 
less note, and brought the sad news of the loss of a boat and eight 
of the crew. And they were followed on June 19th by five others, 
who were the bearers this time of twenty-six pounds of wheat, 
and instructions from the General to wait his return until the 22nd 
of July before sailing. And here the narrative, evidently written 
by one of the thirty left at the fort, and translated by Hakluyt, sud- 
denly breaks of¥, and the curtain falls on the first act of the roman- 
tic drama of French colonization in the New World. 

The interval proved to be long ere it again rose on the same 



ROBERVAL S FAILURE. 



49 



scenery, but on new actors. What befell Roberval's colony, 
the Viceroy himself, and his Pilot-General, cannot with certainty 
be determined. Lescarbot, and the historians of the follow 
ing century, narrate so many incidents which we now know 
to be fiction that little credence can be given to their statements. 
Champlain tells us that Roberval compelled Cartier to return 
to the Island of Orleans, where they built a house and resided, 
until, his ^lajesty removing him for important service, this 
enterprise, deprived of its vigilant superior, gradually came to 
naught. Lescarbot seems to quote Cartier when he asserts 
that Cartier was sent to assist Roberval in withdrawing 
what remained of his colony, a service which occupied eight 
months. Cartier had previously resided, he says, seventeen months 
in Canada, which is the sum of Cartier's two winter campaigns in 
the country. If Cartier was really sent to rescue Roberval, the 
voyage must have occurred in the summer of 1543, for, by letters 
patent on April 3rd, 1544, Robert Le Goupil was appointed Judge 
to settle a pecuniary claim made by Cartier for expenditure over 
receipts, and Cartier and Roberval were summoned to appear as 
witnesses. It is likely, therefore, that Roberval was unable to 
reach Cap Rouge before the eve of St. Magdalen, the 2nd of 
July, and that his impatient colonists, taking advantage of his per- 
mission, sailed for France with two ships in port, that he 
found his boats unseaworthy, or his forces too weak to man them, 
and that he was obliged to face another winter of cold and starva- 
tion, under the constant risk of annihilation by the Indians. As he 
did not follow his advance guard in 1542, Cartier may have been 
sent to his rescue in the spring of 1543. It is strange that so memor- 
able an event as the first attempt at colonization by France should 
have been recorded in so incomplete a manner, and that the records 
themselves should have been first preserved in a fragmentary con- 
dition only, in a translation in Hakluyt's collection of voya,2:cs. 
Further research in the French archives may unearth the complete 
narrative, but whatever additional information may be discovered, 
it would not alter the conclusion that the plans were ill-laid, the 
material enlisted ill-suited, the enterprise ill-conducted, and the 
result a lamentable failure. Rol)crval and his aristocratic com- 



50 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



panions evidently aspired to rival their Spanish cousins, but they 
lacked both their opportunity and their indomitable vigor and 
energy. Cartier alone stands forth, eminent in seamanship, dis- 
cretion and power of organization. Though Lescarbot, writing 
eighty years after Cartier, and with a strong prejudice against the 
St. Malo Captain, charges him with faint-heartedness for failure 
in his colonial schemes, for which he asserts he was fully provided 
and equipped on his second expedition, there is no evidence, either 
in Cartier's own narrative or other contemporaneous documents, 
that he was entrusted with civil authority as Governor of a colony, 
or that on him or his colonists were conferred any trading privil- 
eges, or that the expedition was other than an exploration under- 
taken at the expense of the State. 



CHAPTER III. 



What Happened on the St. Lawrence Between 1544 

and 1608. 

The sixty-five years which intervened between Cartier's and 
Roberval's futile attempts to colonize the valley of the St. Law- 
rence, and the actual foundation of Quebec by Champlain, con- 
stitute the dark age of Canadian history. The French govern- 
ment was during this period haunted by a desire to reoccupy the 
abandoned territory, but did nothing. Not so, however, French 
sailors. They carried on a desultory trade with the Indians, as 
we learn from a letter written by Jacques Noel, Cartier's nephew, 
in 1553 to Moses Growte, correcting some inaccuracies on a cer- 
tain map of North America, by reference to his own observations 
and to a map of his uncle's, which he says has been lent to his two 
sons, Michael and John, then in Canada. The writer promises 
that if, on their return, he learned from them anything new worth 
recording, he would communicate it. There is no reason to sup- 
pose that any of these traders extended their operations beyond 
Hochelaga, the limit of Cartier's explorations. They more prob- 
ably confined them to the mouth of the Saguenay, for Tadousac 
was a great center of Indian barter when Champlain founded his 
colony in 1608. It was tlien, no doubt, as Lake St. John now is, 
a rendezvous of the Algonquin tribes, who hunted for skins over 
the Labrador promontory and wandered northwesterly to the land 
of their distant kinsfolk tlie Crces. 

But during this blank in the annals of the St. Lawrence a revo- 
lution was being enacted there, which these transitorv- visitors 
from Europe did not deem worthy of recording, but which was 
to have momentous effects upon the fate of both the white and 
the red men east of the Mississippi for nearly two centuries. 
From the facts bearing on the Indian inhabitants of the St. Law- 
rence valley, scattered through the narrative of Cartier's voyages, 



52 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

we may deduce the following conclusions: That there were 
either sedentary or wandering branches of the Stadacona Indians 
on the south shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and that they 
differed in language and habits from those of the north shore 
of the Gulf: — that the Stadacona Indians were sedentary and 
cultivated land : — that, as Cartier thought it necessary to specify 
that certain of the surrounding villages were unenclosed, we may 
infer that Stadacona was stockaded: — that there was jealousy be- 
tween the Stadacona Indians and their near neighbors, though 
from their common practice of Hving in villages, there is reason to 
suppose that they were racially allied and differed from the wan- 
dering tribes of the Algonquin stock : — that there was a chain of 
villages between Stadacona and Hochelaga inhabited by Indians 
of similar habits and customs, and, therefore, of like lineage : — 
that towards the close of this first attempt of colonization by 
France one, at least, of these communities allied itself with Stada- 
cona to oppose the French intruders : — that at the junction of the 
St. Lawrence and Ottawa was the largest and most powerful of 
these families or tribes, living in a stockaded village and exercis- 
ing a certain control, if not coercion, over the Indians of the lower 
St. Lawrence : — that, if there was not hostility, there was at least 
acute distrust of each other by the Indians of Stadacona and 
Hochelaga. The inference is that all these Indians were of one 
race but of different tribes, and that there were operating causes 
of disunion under which they were segregating themselves into 
hostile groups. 

That they were all of the same race Cartier himself believed, 
for to the narrative of his first voyage he, or his historiographer, 
Appends a list of words which he calls *'Le Langage de la terre 
nouvellement descouverte, appellee Nouvelle France," and he 
closes his second with another list of words and phrases from 
''Le Langage des pays et royaume de Hochelaga et Canada, 
autrement appellee par nous la Nouvelle France." The majority 
of the words for the same object in the two lists closely agree. As 
he met on his first voyage only some travelling bands of the 
Indian tribe of Stadacona, and as the second list of words is 
stated to be from the language of Hochelaga as well as of Canada, 



LANGUAGE AND RACE. 



53 



we have thus corroborative evidence that the language of both 
bonrgades was substantially the same. 

That the Indians of Hochelaga belonged to the great Iroquois 
family, the minute description of the stockaded village and of its 
internal organization leaves no room for doubt; and if all the 
Indians of both Hochelaga and Canada, that is, of the whole 
valley west of Isle Aux Coudres, spoke the same language, then 
the whole of the St. Lawrence between the Gulf and Ottawa 
was occupied by one or more tribes of this powerful race. Mr. 
J. C. Fillings in the preface to his bibliography of the Iroquoian 
Languages (Bulletin of the Smithsonian Institute, 1880) referring 
to the Cartier vocabularies, says : "To the Iroquoian perhaps 
belongs the honor of being the first of any American family of 
languages to be placed on record." Sir Daniel Wilson, in the pro- 
ceedings and transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, com- 
pares Cartier's words for the numerals with corresponding words 
in the dialect of the Huron Indians of Lorette, near Quebec. 
The resemblance is occasionally so close as to support a presump- 
tion of Indian linguistic affinity despite the dissimilarity between 
some of Cartier's words and their representatives in the modern 
dialect ; a dissimilarity so wide that the imagination of the most 
in^renious philological casuist would find it difficult to bridge it. 
Among the numerals, are the following: 

Hochelaga and Canada. Lorette, Modern Huron. 



In another table Sir Daniel Wilson gives, on the authority of 
Mr. Horatio Hale, the corresponding words from Cartier and 
the language of the Wyandots, a branch of the Hurons, now 
living in Anderdon township. Ontario. Here again we find close 
Resemblance, and, as might be anticipated, wide divergence; for 
apart from the change whicli would inevitably take place in un- 
written speech in the three intervening centuries, Cartier's philol- 
ogists cannot have followed very definite rules in expressing the 
sounds of the Indian language by the European ali)habct, nor 



I. — Secata . 
3. — Asche . . 
5. — Ouiscon 
10. — Assem . 



Skat. 
Achin. 
Wisch. 
Asen. 



54 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



could he have had much opportunity of correcting the idiosyn- 
crasies of individual pronunciation or the peculiarities of dialect 
of his few guides, by any widely extended comparison. 
Charlevoix's evidence, though given in 1744, is not of much 
value. He says the inhabitants of Hochelaga spoke the Huron 
language. Cartier's evidence is of more value when he states 
specifically that the vocabulary he gives is that of words and 
sentences spoken by the inhabitants of the two villages and tribes 
of Stadacona and Hochelaga. The incidental references to cor- 
respondence in manners and organization confirm the linguistic 
evidence of the racial unity of the two communities, and of their 
essential differences from the Indians of the Algonquin stock 
which then inhabited the north shore of the Gulf and of the lower 
St. Lawrence. 

Lescarbot, after describing Champlain's trip to the Huron 
country and its stockaded towns, of which he had heard from 
the lips of Champlain himself, said : "I am confirmed in the 
opinion that Jacques Cartier correctly described the stockaded 
bourgade of Hochelaga, notwithstanding the denial of Champlain 
and others that any such town ever existed, simply because they 
found no remains of it, and no tradition of its existence." Les- 
carbot rightly attributed Champlain's not being able to find at 
Quebec the famous antidote for scurvy, known to Jacques Car- 
tier as ^'annedda," to the fact that the Indians who knew of it 
by that name had been exterminated, or at any rate had dis- 
appeared. The disappearance of Hochelaga can be interpreted 
only on the supposition that its inhabitants were driven away by 
hostile tribes, and all vestige of the bourgade destroyed by the 
vindictive conquerors, in accordance with the general habit of con- 
quering Indians throughout the North American continent. 

Nicholas Perrot, an Indian trapper and interpreter, who wrote 
towards the close of the seventeenth century, says : ''The coun- 
try of the Iroquois was originally Montreal, and Three Rivers 
and he then proceeds to explain their migration by a tradition 
that the neighboring Algonquins, being hunters and more manly 
than their agricultural neighbors, asked a party of Iroquois to 
accompany them on a hunting expedition, when out of jealousy 



THE VANISHING OF HOCHELAGA. 



55 



caused by the better luck of the Iroquois, the Algonquins 
killed some of their Iroquois companions. A bitter feud arose, 
which led to the driving of the less warlike Iroquois, first to the 
north shore of Lake Erie, then to the south shore of Lake On- 
tario. In their various migrations and wars the Iroquois acquired 
the valor and skill which subsequently m.ade them the dominant 
power. When Champlain visited Stadacona and Hochelaga in 
1608, only 65 years after Roberval withdrew his company of 
unsuccessful colonists, the Iroquois name of Stadacona had given 
place to the Algonquin name of Quebec (see note). There were 
then on the St. Lawrence no populous stockaded villages occupied 
by a sedentary population possessing the social and political organ- 
ization, crude yet distinct, of the departed race. He found only 
scattered bands of nomadic Algonquins. 

The Huron inhabitants of the bourgade of Hochelaga (if we 
assume they were Hurons), had migrated to the shores of the 
Georgian Bay on Lake* Huron ; but the descendants of Donne- 
cana — where were they? Were they with their kindred on Lake 
Huron, or had they been driven from their picturesque fastness 
or voluntarily abandoned it in favor of the more temperate valley 
of the Mohawk? 

Indian tradition assigns as the cradle of the Huron-Iroquois 
race the land south of the St. Lawrence and between it 



Note. — We assume that Champiain means, when he says it was so called by 
by the Indians, that Quebec was its Indian name, as Kebe-Kebec is the Micmac 
word for a contracted water-way. We may accept that as the origin of the 
name in preference to the fanciful myth that Champlain or one of his comrades, 
on first seeing the magnificent promontory jutting out between the St. Lawrence 
and the St. Charles, exclaimed "Que Bee !" 

Hawkins, in his " Picture of Quebec," reproduces from Ednionstone's 
** Heraldry," the mutilated seal of William de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk — who lived 
in the reigns of Henry V, and VI. The word Quebec occurs in the inscription on 
the seal. According to Ferland and Faillon, one of de la Pole's titles was "Count 
of Bri-Quebec" — a name probably therefore contracted into Quebec. The two 
syllables which compose the word Quebec occur frequently in Norman and 
Breton names, Caudebec — Briquebose — Briqueville — as well as Briquebec — or as 
it is sometimes spelled, Bricquebec, near Cherbourg. The Algonquin name Kebec 
must therefore have sounded so familiar to the Champlain crews, or to Breton or 
Norman traders or fishermen who preceded him, that they adopted it as transfer- 
ring an old name to their new home. They may not have called it Quebec in 
memory of Briquebec, but may merely have adopted the native name because it re- 
minded them of a familiar spot beyond the seas, and was suitable to the locality. 



56 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



and the sea. Another tradition places the cradle of the race on 
the Lakes, and makes the tribe migrate first towards the sunrise 
as far as the sea before they return to their ancestral inland 
home (Beauchamp's Iroquois Trail, page ii). Whichever tradition 
reflects the truth they both assign to the Iroquois stock a tem- 
porary abode where Cartier found them dwelling in the first 
half of the sixteenth century. In further confirmation of 
this tradition we find Indian tribes belonging to the same stock 
occupying the seaboard as far south as Florida. The Cherokees, 
for instance, possessed ethnical traits and exhibited linguistic pe- 
cuHarities which linked them to the Iroquois stem. They also 
displayed all the native prowess of the stock from which they 
sprung. But while these offshoots of the race, as we presume them 
to have been, remained on the seaboard, the race itself developed 
into its most distinctive type in the tribes of the Huron and of the 
Iroquois Confederations. 

The Hurons, when first known distinctly as such, occupied the 
eastern shore of the Georgian Bay and were at bitter feud with 
their brethren of the Five Nations, whose stockaded towns ex- 
tended over the Genesee and Mohawk valleys, south of Lake On- 
tario, almost from the Niagara river to the Hudson. There was 
another tradition current among the Hurons, as recorded by the 
Recollet and Jesuit missionaries, namely, that they had been driven 
from their former abode on the St. Lawrence by the Senecas. The 
Wyandott historian, Peter Dooyentate, states that the Senecas 
even occupied with the Hurons the Island of Montreal (Sir D. 
Wilson, Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, vol. 2). If, 
as is almost certain, the stockade of Hochelaga was inhabited by 
the Hurons, it is not a forced conjecture to suppose that the In- 
dians of Stadacona belonged to another but unfriendly branch of 
the Iroquois family, possibly the ancestors of the Senecas. Their 
vacillating relations with Cartier would be thus explicable. At 
first friendly, they assumed a suspicious and almost hostile attitude 
as soon as he expressed a determination to ascend the river to the 
headquarters of the Hurons. If they had hostile designs against 
the Hurons, they would employ every device of Indian diplomacy 
to prevent the Frenchmen with arquebuses and cannon from form- 



THE IROOUI5 CONFEDERACY. 



57 



ing friendly relations with their foes. Their omission to propose 
an offensive alliance and a warlike expedition, as the Algonquins 
did to- Champlain in the next century, may have been due to the 
promptness with which Cartier acted, and the indifference he dis- 
played to their co-operation. 

Iroquois tradition dates the formation of their great con- 
federacy back to the fourteenth or fifteenth centuries, but though 
the first imperfect measures of union may then have been formed, 
the growth and consolidation of its power was gradual. Even 
after its normal development was interrupted by European inter- 
ference, we see the Five Nations absorbing a sixth, and strength- 
ening the depleted forces of the confederacy by the incorporation, 
after their defeat, of a distant and previously hostile branch of the 
race. Although, therefore, the confederacy may have been estab- 
lished in the IVIohawk country and the ground work laid of its 
future power, it was probably only beginning to experience the 
enormous force inherent in consolidation when Cartier found the 
Iroquois occupying the valley of the St. Lawrence. Its astute 
statesmen, for such they doubtless were, had formulated the 
distinct policy of gathering into a restricted area of superior 
agricultural capabilities and strategical position, the most power- 
ful and war-like members of the great scattered family. Of these 
members the Hurons were the most conspicuous, but they were 
probably so powerful and numerous as to be unwilling to merge 
their independence in the rising confederacy, and abandon their 
favorable site at the junction of the Ottawa and the St. Lawrence. 
Yet if they refused to enter, and declined to consolidate their 
forces with those of the confederacy, their separate existence 
would, from the Iroquois point of view, be a standing menace. 
They would be certain to become the nucleus of another con- 
federation which would be hostile to, if not destructive of, 
that already formed ; the aim, therefore, of the Mohawk chiefs 
would be to annihilate, if they could not absorb, their separated 
brethren. Cartier tells us that the Ilochelaga tribe whom we have 
supposed to be Hurons was already so strong as to dominate the 
Indians of Stadacona and the lower St. Lawrence. The Moliawk 
confederacy had thus allies already made, or tribes inclined to 



58 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



be allies, in the kindred Indians to the east of Hochelaga. In 
the interval between Roberval's departure and Champlain's ap- 
pearance on the scene the Mohawk confederation probably sw^ept 
down on Hochelaga, and, with the aid of the Stadacona-Iroquois, 
dislodged the Hurons and obliged them to migrate to some other 
locality. For their new seat the Hurons would naturally choose 
some locality situated at what they considered a safe distance from 
the Iroquois canoes, where they would have space in which to grow 
and opportunity to create, by affiliation, another confederation with 
which to oppose their implacable enemies. No better spot could 
have been selected than the shores of the Georgian Bay. Between 
them and their enemies there lay not only Lake Ontario, but the 
whole Peninsula of western Ontario, peopled by the Neutres, the 
Tiontates or Petuns, and other tribes of the Iroquois stock, who, if 
not their allies, dreaded the power of the confederacy as acutely 
as they did themselves. 

The story of what befell them in their retreat on Lake Huron 
and how at length they returned to the St. Lawrence under the 
protection of the French, forms an interesting and pathetic part of 
the history of New France during the seventeenth century. In 
fact, that history was shaped in a great measure by the complica- 
tions which sprung out of the French entanglements in Huron 
wars and politics. These subsequent events are matters of history. 
The tragedies, however, which were enacted in this dark comer 
of the continent during the half century or more of obscuration, 
following Cartier's and Roberval's departure, can be a subject for 
speculation only. But it is a dramatically interesting one. We 
cannot imagine that the small migratory bands of hunters with- 
out organization or pojicy, whom Champlain found on the St. 
Lawrence, destroyed the stockaded town of Hochelaga after sub- 
duing the populous tribes of Stadacona and its vicinity. It was 
only when the combined strength of the Iroquois of the East 
and of the West had crushed the Huron Iroquois that the poor 
wandering Micmacs, or whoever the Algonquins may have been, 
ventured to enter on the vacated territory. The Stadacona In- 
dians may have been Senecas, but, whether they were or not, 
if they were the allies of the Mohawks in this their first Huron 



CONSOLIDATION. 



59 



war, it was in obedience to the wise policy of consolidation that 
they abandoned their home, which was too far from the centre 
of consolidation to be safe, and removed to some territory contigu- 
ous to that already occupied by the confederated nations. More- 
over, if they were the tribe afterwards known as the Senecas they 
became the left wing of the forces of that powerful group of war- 
like communities, and occupied the shores of the beautiful lake 
of that name to the west of the Onondagas, who probably then 
occupied the country- between Oneida and Cayuga lakes. They 
therefore formed the westerly bulwark between the other mem- 
bers of the compact and the Hurons. They must have been the 
most obnoxious of all the Iroquois nations to that most harassed 
member of the family. It was consistent therefore with the ex- 
istence of this grudge that when the Hurons in 1616 secured the 
co-operation of Champlain in one of their war-like expeditions 
they should lead him to attack the Senecas. 

If my supposition be correct, the 65 years of dense obscurity 
covered the critical period in the history of the IMohawk con- 
federacy. It had, we may assume, been created and its general 
policy formed during the previous centuries.* That policy was 
to incorporate into the confederacy friendly branches of the par- 
ent stock, on consideration of their adopting its principles and 
merging their own individuality into the unity of the league, but 
ruthlessly to crush and, if possible, annihilate all rivals. The con- 



* Mons. Laverdiere in the note to page 1032 of his edition of Cham- 
plain, in explanation of Champlain's statement that the Iroquois were weary of the 
war which had been waged for over 50 years, says: *' This passage give us, at least 
approximatelv. the date of the famous quarrel to which Nicholas Terrot and the 
Relation of 1660 refer, and which made of the Algonquins and the Iroquois irre- 
concilable enemies. This would assign the date 1570 to this profound division, if 
indeed, it was not a revival of an older feud, for the Indians whom Cartier found 
in the country, and who appear to have been called ' les bons Iroquois,' alreadv had 
as enemies, as early as 1535, a nation living to the south, then called the Touda- 
mans (the same doubtless as the Tsountouans or Tsonnontouans). with whom 
they were constantly at war." I think it more likely that the Toudamans were a 
band of the Iroquois who became involved in the impending racial war. 

Father Le Jeune, in the Relation of 1633, says that a Huron, "Pierre Paste 
dechouan," told him that his grandmother used to relate with pleasure the aston- 
ishment with which the Indians saw the vessel in which the French arrived moving 
like a floating i,Iand. 

Father Lalemant, in Chapt. II. of the Relation of 1660, repeats the same 
tradition as Perrot. 



6o QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

federacy probably then consisted of not more than four so called 
nations. But just as it was becoming sensible of the power of 
combination, there sprang up on the St. Lawrence another high- 
ly organized nation with similar institutions and instincts, and 
presumably kindred aims, which would be sure to gather to itself, 
in a rival and necessarily hostile combination, the tribe or tribes, 
presumably the Senecas, occupying the lower St. Lawrence. There 
were already signs of co-operation at the period of Cartier's third 
voyage. We have seen how the chief of Hochalai was com- 
bining with the chief of Stadacona against him. There was evi- 
dently, therefore, danger to the Mohawk supremacy in any other 
confederation, whether it were grouped around the Stadacona 
or the Hochelaga tribe. And so, by means of diplomacy and war 
the Huron hopes and Huron influence were crushed and the Iro- 
quois of Stadacona were first secured as allies, and then drawn 
in from the St. Lawrence and incorporated into the Mohawk 
confederacy. The St. Lawrence allies then formed the fifth na- 
tion of the league, and added greatly to the terror which its 
valor and discipline cast over the whole middle section of eastern 
North America. It is strange that events and incidents so im- 
portant and so recent should have failed to be recorded by the 
missionaries, who not long after made their abode among the 
Hurons ; for oral tradition is almost undying among the Indians, 
and there must have been aged men and women on the Georgian 
Bay who had been born at Hochelaga and remembered the great 
migration. But the spirit of historical criticism was not strong 
in the early colonists of New France, even Champlain being 
no exception. Thus it came about that a complete revolution of 
the most momentous kind, and one which produced grave con- 
sequences during the early course of Canadian history, remains 
imtold and can only be guessed at — a curious example of how 
short a space of time may suffice for great national changes 
to take place, and all record of them to be obliterated, if 
neither architectural monuments nor written literature exists to 
commemorate past or record current events. We can only con- 
jure up in imagination what happened : the formal councils in 
the lodges of the Iroquois and Hurons ; the protracted negoti- 



AN ERA OF STRUGGLE. 



6i 



ations between the rival confederacies ; the gravity and earnest- 
ness of the warrior delegates as they discussed the alternatives of 
peace or war; the care with which the leaders elaborated their plans 
of campaign, after all possible alliances had been secretly made ; 
the attack in force upon the Hochelaga stockade ; the failure to de- 
stroy it by a coup de main, followed by the ceaseless harassment 
by small bands of Iroquois of every party of Hurons venturing 
beyond the stockade, till their fields lay waste and the river with its 
fish, though under their very eyes, became virtually inaccessible. 
The Hurons were evidently too strong to be conquered and anni- 
hilated, and too independent to accept absorption, but yet too weak 
to become aggressive. The war was doubtless waged with the 
same fiendish ingenuity and barbarous cruelty with which the sec- 
ond war against the same Hurons in the next century was prose- 
cuted. Hochelaga was probably not abandoned till the retreat of 
those of its defenders who survived became the one alternative to 
annihilation. When they decided to abandon their magnificent 
position, magnificent then as now, at the meeting of the two great 
water-ways, they must have escaped at a moment when their ene- 
mies were off the watch. The line of flight must have been by 
canoe up the Ottawa and the Mattawa through Lake Nipissing 
and down the French river into land-locked recesses at the 
Georgian Bay, which they evidently thought would be a safe re- 
treat. 

While these politicians and warriors in the dense forests of 
America were framing policies, negotiating alliances, plotting 
one another's destruction, waging war with relentless ferocity, 
and watching with sleepless vigilance their opportunity to kill and 
torture ; while their fleets of canoes were stealthily moving to 
points of attack or noiselessly carrying them to some secluded 
place of safety; wliilc the game of statecraft and of war was being 
played with no great world looking on to applaud or condemn, but 
with an energy as intense and with cunning as astute as if the 
drama were being enacted on a vaster field and the issues were of 
world-wide interest, the same qualities were being exercised on the 
other side of the sea, but amidst different surroundings and with 
different results. Nevertheless what transpired during those six- 



62 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



ty-five years in the hidden recesses of that great silent land — the 
building up of the Iroquois confederacy, the migration of the 
Hurons to the Georgian Bay, and the abandonment of the St. Law- 
rence were incidents of no slight importance in giving shape and 
direction to the early history of New France, New Amsterdam and 
New England. 

In Europe at the same time opposing powers and principles 
were gathering themselves together into hostile camps and pre- 
paring to transfer their quarrels to the new world, where they 
would invade those same dense forests and traverse those same 
watery highways in alliance with the Indian braves, who were 
simultaneously being consolidated into antagonistic groups. The 
reformation in religion was only one expression of the great 
revolution in thought and morals which had been slowly working 
in Europe. No sooner had it become the issue, than it divided 
Europe into two sections, along lines mainly racial. Italy and 
Spain felt feebly the new impulse ; France was convulsed, but the 
old thought succeeded in repressing the new. In Germany, the 
Netherlands, England, the Lowlands of Scotland, and Scan- 
dinavia, the love of liberty proved stronger than the love of 
art, and the appeal to private judgment more attractive than 
the claims of tradition. Some of the Swiss cantons originated 
a nevv^ faith; others adhered to the old. The lines of 
cleavage did not follow with sufficient accuracy geographical 
or racial lines to permit of absolute generalization; but, roughly 
speaking, the so-called Latin races remained true to the old 
Church; the Teutonic race adopted widely different systems of 
theology and of church government. When the Reformation, 
using the term in its popular sense, was accepted by a nation at 
large, there followed in its wake a more or less radical political 
revolution. The abandonment of traditional religion seemed al- 
ways to result in a weakening of faith in the established political 
system, and a desire to throw off the trammels at once of govern- 
mental subjection and ecclesiastical control. In fact, religious re- 
volt was usually preceded by a movement in the direction of politi- 
cal freedom. 

Absolutism in an extreme form continued to oppress Spain, and 



OPPOSING POLITICS. 



63 



was riveted by her on her American colonies. A more moderate 
phase of it gained the victory in France, and was transferred to 
New France. The gradual change from mediaeval monarchy to 
constitutional rule, and from Romanism to ritualistic Protestant- 
ism, was worked out in England, with one great oscillation 
toward extremes, in politics and religion. Strange to say, 
the conflicting tendencies were represented in her two groups 
of North American settlers — those of Virginia and of Ply- 
mouth Bay. Thus were all the contending forces which were 
disrupting Europe transferred to our Western wilds — here on an 
open field, under entirely new conditions, to wreck or to build 
into mighty nations, the weak, isolated communities which for a 
time could barely support life in the hard struggle with savage 
nature and more savage men. Here also was to be gradually 
evolved a solution which has never yet been completely realized in 
Europe — a free church in a free State. It was a conception so 
foreign to the mind of the sixteenth century, that, though con- 
formable to the principles of Protestantism, and certainly to the 
conception of the primitive church, it was far from being acted 
upon even in the Puritan colonies. Nevertheless its gradual 
realization marked the steps towards real freedom and prosperity 
in the North American settlements. 

It was during the interval between Cartier and Champlain 
that the schism occurred in Europe which led to the foundation of 
New France under most intimate church and State alliance, and 
of New England under principles the outcome of which was 
the complete dissociation of Church and State. Here, there- 
fore, in the dense forests of that section of the New World which 
had escaped absorption because of its forbidding climate and 
aspect, representatives of the two extreme wings of the parties then 
dividing Europe were about to try the great experiment as to 
which is most conducive to national progress and human hap- 
piness — individual freedom of thought and personal participation 
in government, or the waiving of private judgment in obedi- 
ence to tradition, ecclesiastical authority, and paternal rule. 
The lines of demarcation were more clearly drawn in North 
America than in Europe, for there was no mixture of op- 



64 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



posing religious elements in either of the two communities 
of New France and New England. The New England colonists 
might dispute with one another on nice points of theology, but they 
were at one in their hostility to papacy and prelacy. And during 
the sixty-five years of obscuration of the St. Lawrence region, the 
civil war which had raged in old France, between the Huguenots 
and the Catholics, had terminated with results so disastrous to the 
former that a royal decree ordained that no heretic should be al- 
lowed to contaminate the soil of New France, or instill false 
doctrines into the fallow Indian mind. Nor was the arbitrary 
exclusion of the most active element of French society resented ; 
for Frenchmen were as a nation indifferent, and French Prot- 
estantism was perhaps more political than religious. It is certain 
that Henry IV. would not have found the French so willing to 
follow him obediently into the fold of dissent as the English were 
to be guided by Henry VIII. Henry HI. was assassinated by a 
tool of the monkish faction because he had made concessions to his 
Huguenot subjects. When, therefore, Henry IV. ascended the 
throne, his conviction of the vast preponderance of public opinion 
in favor of the old faith must have been one of the arguments 
which drove him to renounce the Protestant cause, of which he 
had been so illustrious a champion. Another doubtless was the 
determination to be king in the same full sense in which his pre- 
decessors had been, and not a monarch subject to a Parliament, as 
he would necessarily be if a Huguenot king. Of the two evils, he 
preferred to share his power with the church rather than with a 
popular assembly. The maximum demands of the church he could 
calculate on ; the extravagant and ever-multiplying demands of the 
Parliament, who could estimate ? For the same reason he riveted 
on New France a large measure of ecclesiastical domination, in 
order that he and his successors might continue to exercise ab- 
solute monarchical rule. 



CHAPTER IV. 



Early Trading Companies and Champlain's Apprentice- 
ship, 1 608- 1 6 12. 

Cartier's voyages, though temporary failures, had a notable 
influence. The experience of the gentlemen adventurers who had 
accompanied Roberval was so dif¥erent from that of the Spanish 
colonists of rank that France decided she must offer inducements 
in the way of trade monopolies if her great domain was to be ex- 
plored and colonized by private enterprise. Yet, even without 
this stimulus, the commercial spirit which was awakened under 
Francis I. never again slumbered, though to the French merchant 
foreign commerce seems not to have been as congenial as domes- 
tic trade. The French sailor has never been lacking in daring or 
>seamanship. No service ever demanded these qualities in so 
high a degree as the Newfoundland fisheries ; and it was the 
Norman, Breton and Basque fishermen who first followed the 
Portuguese in drawing on the almost inexhaustible treasures of 
these prolific banks. The French seaman has always been more 
ready to risk his life than the French merchant to venture his 
savings in foreign trade. Whenever the latter did so it was 
usually as a member of a corporation or of a chartered company 
with exclusive state privileges and monopolies, not as a private 
individual. 

The association of merchants and manufacturers for mutual 
protection and for regulation of prices was a phase of commercial 
life all over Europe throughout the Middle Ages. The Hanseatic 
league was a closer and more comprehensive corporation than any 
created since. In the twelfth century we find the Basque fisher- 
men combining for defense and aid, and even pooling their profits. 
Yet it was not until the sixteenth century, after the discovery of 
America and a sea route to the Indies, with the consequent com- 
mercial ascendancy of Spain and Portugal, that the English, 



66 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



French and Dutch were instigated by jealousy and legitimate 
rivalry to extend their commerce beyond the seas. That these 
merchants should combine was an inevitable consequence of the 
incessant wars in which the rival nations were engaged, of the 
ambiguous distinction between piracy and legitimate naval war- 
fare, and of the resulting insecurity of the ocean highways. There 
was safety in numbers of ships and division of risks. But the 
motives and methods of the national companies differed as widely 
as the national characteristics of their shareholders. Pierre Bon- 
nassieux, in his work, ''Les GrandesCompagnies de Commerce," 
draws broadly the distinction between the French and the Eng- 
lish and Dutch trading companies. He says, "When we come to 
investigate the fundamental features which distinguish the French 
companies from the Dutch and English, we find that the French 
commercial companies were with few exceptions the direct crea- 
tion of the government. While private initiative and public opin- 
ion contributed to the formation of the great companies of the 
other powers, we see the government of France always at the 
head of every enterprise of this kind. As a result this royal inter- 
vention proclaims itself in privileges and favors of all kinds. No 
country has suffered in like manner from monopolies so rigorous, 
privileges so extreme, as France under the Old Regime. The 
absence of all spirit of freedom of trade in the nation at large, the 
vicious system of land tenure in the colonies, with the consequent 
blight of all energy and perseverance among the colonists, relig- 
ious intolerance, and above all commercial exclusiveness were the 
consequences of such a system of state initiative and control. 
Trade is still held in low estimation in France, and rarely will a 
man of great wealth or social position take an active part in the 
management of a great company." What is true in this respect 
to-day was curiously exemplified four centuries ago, when the 
King, to combat the social prejudices against trade, offered titles 
of nobility to commoners willing to risk a certain sum in enter- 
prises which the government was fostering. 

No country can without fear of challenge claim priority as 
the initiator of great commercial companies. Though it was the 
success of Spain and Portugal that stimulated other countries^ 



SCHEMES OF COLONIZATION. 



67 



we do not find that these pioneers did much to favor commercial 
corporations in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The com- 
pany of the Portuguese ^lerchants created in 1443 by Prince 
Henry of Portugal to found factories in Africa and traffic in gold 
and slaves for importation into the Iberian Peninsula ; the conces- 
sion given to certain Flemish merchants by Charles V. to supply 
the Spanish colonies with negro slaves, and the Brazil Company, 
created by Portugal in 1649, which secured to her control of a vast 
section of South America, then in danger of falling under Dutch 
influence, appear to sum up their attempts in that direction. 

It is lamentable that the first chartered company should have 
been organized to deal in human flesh, and that one of the first of 
the English naval heroes should have been a slave hunter and a 
slave trader."^ 

In the sixteenth century France was the first Western power 
to obtain by capitulation from the Porte certain exclusive trade 
rights in the Levant, and to confer on an organized company a 
monopoly of trading in that region. The Frenchman also opened 
up a trade in coral on the African coast. The list of so-called 
"Regulated Companies" organized in England in the sixteenth 
century is the most memorable. It comprises the African Com- 
pany, organized in 1536, the Russian Company, in 1556, the 
Levant Company, in 1581. The constitution of these ''Regulated 
Companies" allowed any member to trade, within the sphere of 
the company's rights and privileges, on his own account. The 
Levant was the last of these important corporations, and the 
famous East India Company was the first of the great English 
Stock Companies. It dates its birth from the very last day of 
the sixteenth century. But all these corporations were trading, not 
colonization, companies. 

It was France who took the lead as a colonizer through cor- 
porate co-operation. She had contemplated, as we have seen, 
founding a colony in Canada under Carticr and Roberval. But 
the enterprise did not assume the character of a commercial com- 

♦Sir Humphrey Gilbert sincerely assigned the sowing of Christianity as the 
first duty of the explorer. Vet, judged by the standards of to-day, Sir 
Humphrey, freebooter and slaveholder, was hardly a model disciple of Christ. 



68 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



pany. The ships and funds were provided by the French Govern- 
ment. The loss through the failure of this attempt may have 
determined the Government not to use the public funds again 
directly for colonization purposes. The next colonization schemes 
were those of Admiral Cohgny. The Government did not sup- 
port, nor yet overtly oppose, the two disastrous enterprises con- 
ceived and supported by the Huguenots — the first to Brazil under 
Villegagnon in 1555, the second to Florida under Ribout in 1560. 
The motive was to escape religious persecution, and had they 
survived, they could have been sustained only as industrial and 
commercial enterprises, under Huguenot influence and with Hu- 
guenot capital. France might thus have claimed to be innocent 
of disregarding the Bull of Alexander VL They failed, however, 
and the French Government decided to restrict its sphere of oper- 
ations on the North American Continent, to the land lying to the 
north of the sphere assigned by the Pope to Spain and Portugal. 
The growing importance of the Newfoundland fisheries also at- 
tracted her to those less genial regions. 

After Roberval's failure the French had never actually re- 
treated from the St. Lawrence as traders, for Cartier had pointed 
out the road to the Saguenay and indicated the rich fur country 
of which it was the outlet. But no active attempt to found a 
settlement was again made in the sixteenth century. Hakluyt 
has preserved for us two letters of Cartier's nephew, Jacques 
Noel, which refer to certain operations in Canada ; and according 
to Lescarbot, the said Jacques Noel and his relative, the Sieur de 
la Journaye, obtained from Henry HI. in 1588 a monopoly of the 
fur trade, on condition of their establishing a colony in Canada. 
This commission, if really given, was cancelled before its expiry, 
for Henry IV., in 1598, conferred the commission of King's Lieu- 
tenant, with all the high-sounding powers and privileges with 
which Roberval had been endowed, on Le Sieur Marquis de la 
Roche de Bretagne. Lescarbot, commenting on this, considers 
that it was a proof of the want of French public spirit in maritime 
affairs, that in 1585 the Sieur de la Journaye Chaton and Jacques 
Noel, nephews and heirs of Cartier, lost the exclusive privileges 
of trading with the Indians, which had been granted them for 



A QUESTION OF MONOPOLY. 



69 



twelve years, at the instigation of the merchants of St. Male. 
The heirs of Carrier based their claim on the fact that they were 
endeavoring to carry on, at their own expense, the exploration 
begun by their illustrious uncle ; that they had lost a fleet of three 
or four boats by fire, and that it was only fair that the King 
should renew in their favor the commission granted to Cartier, 
considering that he had expended on the expedition of 1640 six- 
teen hundred and thirty-eight livres more than he had received. 
This is the only hint we find that Cartier himself enjoyed any 
trading privileges. The St. Malo merchants claimed that the 
monopoly was unfair to their mariners, who had invested money 
in the fur trade. Lescarbot says : "It is argued that we must 
not tamper with the liberty common to all men who are willing 
to engage without trammel in foreign commerce ; but I want to 
know which is to be preferred — the propagation of the Christian 
religion and the spread of French influence, or the selfish interests 
of a greedy merchant, who does nothing either for God or the 
King. As a result, that beautiful Dame Liberty prevents these 
poor, erring souls becoming Christians, and has interfered with 
the planting of French colonies, where our own people would 
have found homes, instead of being driven to carry aching hearts 
into Germany, Flanders, England and elsewhere. And it is due 
to this same Dame Liberty and the jealousy of our merchants that 
beaver skins are selling to-day at eight and one-half livres 
($1.70), while at the date of Jacques Noel's commission they 
were worth about fifty sous (two and a half livres). Of a cer- 
tainty, if we deem the Christian faith and religion to be of any 
account, it is worth while contributing something to those who 
risk their lives and fortunes in advancing its interests and the 
public weal." The arguments pro and con have very much the 
ring of the arguments for and against trusts and monopolies in 
the present day. 

The trade, however, on the Banks had grown so active tliat 
the idea of colonizing Canada was probably never completely 
lost sight of. Gosselin, in his Marine Normandc, says: 
"There was great activity in cod fishing, for from 1543 to 
1545 two vessels sailed daily during January and February of 



70 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



those years from the ports of Rouen, Havre, Harfleur and Dieppe. 
After this trade languished, but shortly revived with augmented 
activity, and large ships even up to 150 tons burden were built for 
the Newfoundland fishery after 1 560. This seems to have stimu- 
lated the Government to re-occupy Canada, for in the Archives of 
Rouen there is a notarial check for the sale from Robert Gouel to 
Guilleaume le Beau, the Receiver-General of Finance of the King, 
of a quantity of tools for transportation to New France, whither 
the King will send them shortly for his services. This purchase 
was supplementary to the purchase of a supply of arms, for on 
April 7th Johan Garnier, Lieutenant of the Company of Captain 
Legrange, gave a receipt to the same Guilleaume le Beau for 400 
livres to be spent in the purchase of arquebuses and ammunition 
needed by the French infantry, which it was the pleasure of the 
good King to send shortly to New France for the defense there- 
of." No record of the contemplated expedition has been found, 
and the project, it is probable, was not unwisely abandoned as 
being on too small a scale for success. 

The Sieur de la Roche enjoyed but an empty honor in his 
commission, for he never extended his viceroyalty beyond Sable 
Island, where he left part of his miserable colonists to starve. 
One year sufficed to extinguish his hopes, and sweep away a large 
share of his fortune, for in 1599 his commission was cancelled, 
and certain exclusive rights of trade in furs with the Indians of 
the Saguenay were given to Sieur Chauvin, "a man well skilled 
in navigation and who had served his Majesty faithfully in bygone 
wars, even though he was of the so-called Reformed Religion," so 
says Champlain. He associated himself with the Sieur du Pont- 
grave, another confessed heretic. Their main object being to 
trade with the Indians of the Saguenay for furs, they built a small 
house at Tadousac, and took the initial steps towards founding a 
settlement at that point, which since the days of Cartier had been 
the rendezvous in springtime of the Indian and French traders. 
Another partner was Pierre Dugas, Sieur de Monts de Saintonge, 
who will reappear in our narrative as a promoter of more import- 
ant schemes, but who accompanied this expedition rather out of 
curiosity than with any commercial object. 



IX THE ST. LAWRENCE. 



71 



Both Pontgrave and he clearly saw that, as the rocks of Tadou- 
sac could hardly support the stunted spruce, an agricultural col- 
ony there would thrive but poorly. Champlain quaintly remarks 
that Tadousac is more noted for its cold than for any other of its 
products, inasmuch as, for every ounce of frost that other localities 
can furnish, Tadousac can supply a pound. The two junior 
partners, moved by these considerations, suggested that Chauvin, 
as he had on a previous voyage ascended the river to Three 
Rivers, should explore the main river in search of a more eligible 
site. The views, however, of that thrifty adventurer were limited 
to making money out of the fur and fishing trades. He did not 
aspire to founding an empire, and therefore refused to do more 
than build a house to protect the unfortunates who were to be left 
behind to face the misery of the winter. This done, the three 
partners sailed back to France. The winter quarters of the set- 
tlers in this dreary wilderness proved warm enough, but food was 
scarce. Eleven died, and the remainder had to leave their shanty 
and live on the charity of the Indians. But spring returned, and 
with it the ships. 

A second prosperous voyage was made in 1600, and a third on 
a more extensive scale was being planned, when Chauvin was 
seized with a mortal illness, and the enterprise died with its 
founder. All that Champlain can find fault with in the organiza- 
tion of the undertaking is that a heretic should have been sent 
forth to convert the Canadian Indians to the Holy Catholic Apos- 
tolic and Roman Church, — a paradox no doubt, if we are to take 
seriously the religious platitudes with which all the commercial 
concessions are prefaced, and which a free thinker like Marc Les- 
carbot, and libertines like Francis I. and some of his successors, 
used as glibly as any of the ecclesiastical statesmen or the really 
pious Recollet and Jesuit missionaries. It is not accidental that 
these pioneers should have been heretics. That same spirit of inde- 
pendence which instigated the revolt against the authority of the 
Church and against monarchical absolutism impelled them to seek 
fortune in new and more hazardous ventures than their more 
conservative fellow merchants of the Catholic faith. 

Chauvin dead, another suppliant for exclusive trade privileges 



72 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



immediately appeared in the person of Sieur Commandeur de 
Chaste, Governor of Dieppe, who promised, in return for the 
usual monopoly, to explore the upper St. Lawrence and its rapids, 
v^hich had heretofore impeded all advance beyond the old stockade 
of Hochelaga. The undertaking was onerous, so de Chaste asso- 
ciated with himself some responsible merchants of Rouen, and 
gave the first command to Pontgrave, Chauvin's old lieutenant, 
who had navigated the river as far up at least as the Saguenay. 
While the expedition was being fitted out de Chaste met a sailor 
who had just returned from a voyage of two and a half years to 
Brazil and the South Seas, and whom he rightly judged to be well 
fitted to take an active part in his venture. As soon as the latter 
had obtained his discharge from naval duty he joined Pontgrave 
and set sail for the St. Lawrence. This was in 1603. The ad- 
venturous seafarer, then in the prime of Hfe, was destined to 
justify de Chaste's judgment of his character and to fill ably the 
place de Chaste had dreamed of himself occupying. His name 
was Samuel de Champlain, and the record tells us that he was 
born at Brouage, a seaport of Saintonge, not far south of La 
Rochelle, in the year 1567. 

Fortunately for posterity the sailor was also a scholar and a 
most graphic writer. For twenty-nine years, until 1632, three 
years before his death, we have in his own words the charmingly 
told story of the vicissitudes of the struggling colony of which he 
was the parent, and over which he watched with all a parent's 
solicitude until the close of his life. The incidents of this his first 
voyage to the St. Lawrence were given in detail in his work, 
"Des Sauvages," and repeated in the more condensed narrative 
of his voyages, published in 1632. Pontgrave was in command 
and Champlain his lieutenant. They opened trade with the In- 
dians at Tadousac ; then ascended the river, cast anchor at Que- 
bec, by him first mentioned under that name, where the river of 
Canada (St. Lawrence) narrows to some 3,000 feet in width. 
Above Quebec Champlain describes minutely the features of the 
river and its tributaries, the Batiscan and Richelieu ; he also men- 
tions Montreal, but tells not a word of the vanished stockade of 
Hochelaga. They made an unsuccessful attempt to mount the 



CHAMPLAIN, NAVIGATOR AND EXPLORER. 



73 



rapids, then returned to Tadousac, took on board a cargo of furs, 
and sailed for Harfleur, only to find that de Chaste had died on 
the 13th of May, 1603, shortly after their departure, and while 
the ships were battling with the wintry gales in the Gulf of the 
St. Lawrence. With de Chaste expired his commission and all 
efforts by his partners to Hve up to it and fulfill its conditions. 

At once another actor steps upon the stage. De Monts, 
Chauvin's old partner, had been satisfied with his one trip to 
Tadousac for a pastime. His commission was dated the same 
year that Chauvin's expired. It is certain, therefore, that these 
enterprising Huguenots wasted no time, and were as diligent in 
business as they were fervent in spirit. Associating with himself 
in the enterprise a number of merchants of La Rochelle and Rouen 
of his own faith, he sent one vessel to trade with the Indians 
at Tadousac, while he, with the aid of Champlain, the old pilot, 
Pontgrave, and Sieur de Poutrincourt, undertook the hopeless 
task of founding a colony on the Atlantic seaboard, as a medium 
for spreading the Holy Catholic faith, though it was at the same 
time to be conducted on the principles of religious liberty 
and equality, which the reformers were then talking so 
much about, and themselves practising so indifferently. He 
enlisted a number of artisans and peasants, and for their spiritual 
guidance employed both a Roman Catholic priest and a minister 
of the reformed faith. The whole company composed a crew of 
as incompetent settlers and as incongruous leaders as ever started 
out on a bootless errand. Champlain may not have been a man 
of sound doctrine himself. If he was not slightly infected by the 
new notions, he was at least a liberal Catholic and a shrewd 
man of the world ; in any case his reflections on de Monts' 
failure can hardly be gainsaid. They were to the effect that the 
example of two opposing religions is never conducive to the glory 
of God in the sight of the heathen, whom the belligerent mission- 
aries are endeavoring to convert. "I have seen our curate and 
our missionary coming even to blows in defense of their opinions. 
I cannot venture to decide which was the bravest man, and which 
gave the hardest knocks, but this I do know, that the minister 
often grumbled to Dupont about having been beaten, and yet 



74 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



insisted on discussing the points in controversy." The Indians 
took sides, and the French colonists stood up for their respective 
opinions and champions, while Dupont and Champlain had to do 
their best to make peace between the warring factions. 

One of Champlain's comrades in Acadia, and one of his close 
friends, was that good-natured philosopher and skeptic, Lescar- 
bot, who, reflecting on the same subject, says ''it is difficult— well 
nigh impossible — to make all men think alike, especially on mat- 
ters subject to diverse interpretation. The Emperor Charles V., 
after the diet of Augsburg, and, after trying in vain to effect the 
impossible, in molding men's opinions into one fashion, retired 
from the world and buried himself in a monastery, employing his 
leisure in making clocks; but ere long he found it as difficult to 
make all his clocks strike in unison, though designed on the same 
model and manufactured by the same hand, as he had found it to 
secure harmony in the opinions of his subjects." Even that earn- 
est Recollet missionary, the Reverend Father Sagard, cannot help 
joking upon this subject, when he tells us that, a priest and a min- 
ister dying within a short time of one another, their irreverent 
flock buried them in the same grave and watched to see whether 
they, who during life had quarreled so incessantly, could at length 
rest together in peace. 

The Breton merchants, meanwhile, were opposing these mon- 
strous monopolies ; the clergy at the same time were representing 
the absurdity and wickedness of subsidizing heretics to spread the 
true faith ; and thus, through one influence and another, de Monts' 
commission was revoked. His failure to reconcile the ir- 
reconcilable must have persuaded even so pronounced a lati- 
tudinarian as Henry IV. of the impossibiHty of combining mem- 
bers of opposing religious sects in colonization enterprises, one of 
the avowed purposes of which was always to evangelize the na- 
tives. Champlain's experience in Acadia, of the intractable char- 
acter of clergymen, whether priests of Rome, claiming in- 
fallibility by virtue of their ordination by a bishop of apostolic 
descent, or ministers, basing their infallibility on their interpreta- 
tion of the Bible, must have influenced him when he came himself 
to be a commander. He may have had Huguenot leanings. He 



RIVAL CREEDS IX THE WILDERNESS. 



75 



probably had; but as a Governor, under commission from a Ro- 
man Catholic king and statesman, he recognized the incompata- 
bility of theological discord and civil harmony, and consequently 
acquiesced in the provision that excluded Huguenots from the 
future colony of Canada. Mankind has not yet learned to prac- 
tise the forbearance necessary to real civil and religious liberty; 
nor, in the height of the contest between the forces of tradition 
and of reason, when each side had to stand by its position without 
faltering, could it be expected that allowance would be made 
for possible error in one's premises or conclusions ; or the least 
distrust be admitted as to the validity of one's authorities. The 
innumerable compromises upon which tolerance must rest were 
not in accordance with the spirit of the age. The tone of half 
cynical open-mindedness which we enjoy in Erasmus, and yet 
cannot admire, even when compared with the uncompromising 
bigotry of his opponents in his own church, could not express the 
spirit of a revolutionary period. Such men as the narrow-minded 
Carmelite, Egmont, whom Erasmus has pilloried to all ages as the 
embodiment of ignorance and spleen, were fighting for the very 
life of the venerable institutions of which they were the servants, 
and of necessity they were bigoted. On the other hand Luther 
and Calvin and John Knox knew instinctively that they were the 
pioneers of a great movement, which was to liberate man from the 
bondage of caste and superstition, though they could not possibly 
foresee the full political result of the theological controversy they 
had excited. Their thoughts were concentrated on the divine 
message they believed they were delegated to deliver as they read 
it in the Bible. In their own estimation, they were more directly 
under the divine guidance than the priests. They were quite as 
certain as any priest could be of the impregnability of their as- 
sumed position — in other words, as bigoted. For in a time of re- 
volution toleration is the most intolerable of all vices. It is cow- 
ardice under the garb of charity. 

Champlain was not bigoted. None of his actions reveal him 
in that character. But, on the other hand, neither was he an 
eighteenth century skeptic, nor a nineteenth century lacitudinarian 
in theology and politics. He was a soldier and a civil governor, 



76 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



and knew the value of harmony and obedience. It is only as time 
advances that we can see in his narrative a tendency towards 
greater rigidity. He had seen the freebooter Argall sweep down 
upon his old friends at Mount Desert and Port Royal in Acadia in 
1613-1614, destroying and relentlessly carrying them off into cap- 
tivity in the name of God and Protestantism. And what he wit- 
nessed in the neighboring colony of New England must have 
convinced him of the wisdom of maintaining uniformity of eccle- 
siastical rule, even if he could not command absolute unity of 
theological opinion in the little community which he governed. 
He could not, from his point of view as a Frenchman imbued 
with the spirit of French bureaucracy, duly appreciate the merits 
and foresee the ultimately beneficent consequences of the New 
England system in its application to matters of state as well as of 
Church. What did happen before Champlain's death was that the 
theological intolerance of Massachusetts grew to such a height, 
and the theological ferment waxed so hot, that Roger Williams 
could secure the freedom he demanded only by branching off from 
the Colony of Plymouth and founding a church and state of his 
own in Rhode Island; that Thomas Hooker was driven to plant 
the New Hartford Colony, where he could breathe more freely 
apart from the narrowness of the Massachusetts churchmen ; while 
John Davenport was moved to go forth into the wilderness and 
establish the colony of New Haven under a rule still more the- 
ocratic than that of the original Massachusetts system, though it 
also made church membership the qualification of citizenship. 
Champlain, however, had occasion to learn, before he ended his 
career, that peace and harmony do not always prevail even within 
the bosom of the Holy Roman Catholic Church itself ; for, while 
maintaining unity of doctrine, its officers in New France and else- 
where found themselves widely at variance as to the expediency of 
certain rules and practices. A tonsure will no more circumscribe 
men's thoughts than a soutane or a cowl obliterate human 
passion. 

But to return to Champlain's apprenticeship for the work that 
lay before him. For three years he shared the fitful fortunes of 
his countrymen in Acadia, employed chiefly in exploring the deep 



CIIAMPLAIX SAILS FOR QUEBEC. 



77 



indentations of the rugged coast of the present New Brunswick 
and Maine. When he returned to France in 1607 he reported 
himself to his master, de Monts. Just at that moment a pious 
woman, Madame de Guercheville, wife of the Duke de la Roche- 
foucault de Liancourt, in the fulness of her zeal for the spread of 
Christianity among the Indians through the agency of the Jesuits, 
was contemplating the devotion of 3,600 livres to that good end, 
under the direction of Father Coton. De Monts tried to induce 
the pious almoner to invest her funds in his venture, and Cham- 
plain must have added his persuasion, for he reflected long after- 
wards that all the misfortune that befell the French in Acadia; 
Argall's victory; the transportation of the captives to Virginia, 
and a host of other mishaps would have been avoided had the 
good lady given her 3,000 livres towards the foundation of Que- 
bec, so far from the seaboard, and beyond the ken and rapacity, as 
she thought, of the English colonists. But she was too orthodox 
to entrust her contribution for foreign missions to an avowed 
Huguenot and his lukewarm lieutenants. De Monts was com- 
pelled, therefore, to depend upon his own resources. 

Upon Champlain's advice he abandoned the Atlantic coast in 
favor of the St. Lawrence. Champlain's argument was that the 
English were fishing at a distance of only thirteen or fourteen 
leagues from Mount Desert, and that the Atlantic settlers were 
therefore in constant danger from their rapacious instincts and 
habits. Under this new project, de Monts, in 1608, fitted out two 
vessels in Honfleur, committed the command of the expedition to 
Champlain, and entrusted one of the ships to Pontgrave, as well 
he might, for that old sailor had taken part in three previous 
enterprises, knew every feature of the gulf and river, and was 
thoroughly acquainted with the habits and tastes of the Indians. 
The aim of the expedition was to colonize as well as to trade, but 
again money-making was more important than empire-making to 
the men who had risked their fortunes in the enterprise; and it is 
not surprising to find that for many a year the higher motive was 
subordinate to the meaner. Pontgrave preceded Champlain. who 
reached Tadousac on the 3d of June. His lieutenant had before 
his arrival, in pursuance of tlie King's orders, forbidden Basque 



78 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



vessels, already in the port, to trade for peltries with the Indians ; 
but the Basques, under their leader Darache, not only disregarded 
his command, but fired on Pontgrave's ship, wounded him, killed 
a number of his crew and boarded his vessel, from which they 
removed the cannon and all dangerous weapons. Champlain, not 
wishing to run the risk of wrecking his whole enterprise, com- 
promised with the unruly aggressor, and, while a schooner of 
twelve or fourteen tons was being built in which to pursue his 
journey up the St. Lawrence, he explored the Saguenay. 

On June 30th Champlain left Tadousac, and sailing up the 
South Channel, anchored on the 3d of July at Quebec, and at once 
chose a spot for his first building. Champlain tells the story of 
his voyage in detail in his edition of 1613, but, in the narrative 
published in 1632, he dismisses in very few words what must be 
regarded as one of the most momentous of the many epoch-making 
voyages of that age of adventure, seeing that in digging the foun- 
dation of his "habitation," he founded the capital of New France, 
and gave birth to a new power in the Western World. ''I selected," 
he says, *'a spot where the river is narrowest, and which the natives 
called Quebec, and there I commenced to build and cultivate a 
patch of ground, after clearing away the forest." But he adds : 
"While we were moiling and toiling amid hardship and worry, 
many looked back to France to see what was there being done 
towards furthering the enterprise." Unquestionably this was the 
attitude from first to last — looking to France to see what was being 
done, and to inquire what was to be done next. Quebec in truth 
was for many a day a mere trading post ; as clearly, therefore, as 
the material available permits, we must learn the character and 
constitution of those trading companies which nominally support- 
ing it, in reality retarded its development ; and of those earlier 
trading and colonization enterprises whose rapid succession we 
have briefly described. 

In the instructions given to Cartier and Roberval, as we have 
seen, there is not a hint of any inducement, in the shape of mon- 
opoly in trade or exemption from duty or imposts, offered to mer- 
chants to engage in their voyages. Cartier's first and second voy- 
ages were simply voyages of discovery; the third, under or in 



AX EMPTY COMMISSION. 



79 



co-operation with, Roberval, was undertaken to found a colony at 
the expense of the Crown, though perhaps Roberval and some of 
his noble associates contributed. It was so costly that the Home 
Government does not appear to have ever repeated the experiment 
in North America. The profits of the trade in furs were suffi- 
cient to induce the merchants of the northern ports of France to 
engage in it, either exclusively, or as subsidiary to their fishing 
enterprises, without inducement from Government. But what 
the successors of Francis I. wanted was to found a colony beyond 
the sea without drawing on the public treasury. To induce mer- 
chants to undertake responsibilities as colonizers which could 
hardly fail to be detrimental to their interests as fur traders, the 
Government adopted the plan of constituting monopolies within 
certain territorial limits, to which were attached, not only freedom 
from duties and imposts in France, but high and important powers 
of control and administration within the vast domain so con- 
ceded. Noel's monopoly, to which we have referred, prob- 
ably did not involve colonizing conditions, and was speedily 
repealed. Henry HI. was induced, however, to extend wider 
privileges to the Sieur de la Roche only ten years later. The 
terms of his concession indicate already the pattern on which 
French colonies were to be constituted, and although his enter- 
prise was a most unhappy failure, still, as foreshadowing the 
future policy of France in the New World, the terms of the deed 
are worth quoting. The document commences by recounting 
Francis I.'s effort to found a colony under Roberval, and his 
(Henry's) ambition to carry out his ancestor's project. To that 
end he confers on the Sieur de la Roche like powers, and consti- 
tutes him Lieutenant-General of the said country of Canada, 
Hochelaga, Newfoundland, Labrador, the Rjver of the Great Bay 
of Norembegue, and the land adjacent to the said provinces and 
rivers, which are of great length and extent, and nevertheless 
uninhabited by the subjects of Christian princes. Within the 
limits of his jurisdiction dc la Roche is given authority to exercise 
ample civil and religious jurisdiction, to make laws, statutes and 
ordinances, enforce obedience, punish or pardon delinquents, 
remit penalties; it being always understood that these powers arc 



8o QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

not to be exercised in any countries under control of any other 
prince or potentate who is a friend, ally or confederate of France. 
In order to increase the good will, courage and loyalty of those 
who shall take part in the said expedition, and likewise of those 
who shall remain in the country, there is conferred on him the 
power to cede portions of the land which he shall have acquired 
in the proposed exploration, with full rights of property to the per- 
sons on whom they shall be bestowed and to their successors, 
namely, gentlemen and those whom he shall judge to be persons 
of merit ; such grants to be in the form of fiefs, seigneuries, chdtel- 
leniesy comth, vicomtes, baronnies and other dignities in fealty to 
us, as he may judge suitable to the particular services of each in- 
dividual, on condition of their serving in the defence of the said 
countries. On others of meaner condition the land shall be con- 
ferred, subject to such charge and annual rent as he shall pre- 
scribe. "Nevertheless," the commission adds, ''our intention is that 
they shall be relieved from the payment of dues for the first six 
years, or for such other terms as our lieutenant shall deem right 
and necessary ; but these exemptions are in no case to include free- 
dom from military service. Also on the return of our said lieute- 
nant he may distribute to others who have taken part in the voyage 
the gains and profits accruing from said enterprise, giving one 
third to those who make the voyage, retaining one third to cover 
his own costs and expenses ; the other third to be applied to works 
for the common advantage, on fortifications, on the expenses of 
war; and that our lieutenant may be the better aided in the said 
enterprise, power is given him to seek the assistance of, and enhst 
in the army, all gentlemen, merchants and others, our subjects, in 
person or by representative, who wish to take part in the said 
voyage, to pay for crews or equipments, and to furnish ships at 
their own expense. But what we do forbid in express terms is 
that they trade without the knowledge or consent of our said 
lieutenant, under penalty of forfeiture of their goods and vessels on 
discovery of their crime." The commission was signed by Henry 
IV. on the 12th of January, 1598. No benefit accrued to de la 
Roche or any of his associates from these magnificent concessions 
and high-sounding titles, but the document defines the lines on 



DE MOXTS RECEIVES A COMMISSION. 



8i 



which statesmen had already determined to estabHsh a colonial 
system. The intention of the Crown was to relieve itself of the 
risk and expense of colonization by offering tempting commercial 
terms together with governmental powers to the adventurers, and 
then to repeat in the colonies the administrative and land systems 
of the mother country. Not the remotest suggestion occurs of con- 
ferring even a shadowy semblance of self-government on the col- 
onies. Lescarbot in the dedication of his charming "Histoire de la 
Nouvelle France" to Louis XIII. in 1612, refers in a half-concealed 
vein of sarcasm to the methods pursued by France when he says : 
*'There are two motives which ordinarily induce Kings to engage 
in conquest — zeal for the glory of God, and desire for the increase 
of their own glory and grandeur. Our kings, your predecessors, 
were long ago induced, under this double stimulus, to extend the 
bounds of their realm, and to create at little cost to themselves, 
but by means both just and legitimate, new empires to be hence- 
forth subject to them." What Lescarbot describes as the system 
practised by Francis I., Henry III., and Henry IV., was continued 
by Louis XIII. and Louis XIV. 

The next concession is that made by Henry IV. to Sieur 
de Monts. This document has also been preserved by Lescarbot, 
who sees in de Monts' plan another expedient for founding a 
stable colony in lands beyond the sea, without drawing on His Ma- 
jesty's coffers. The preamble, as usual, recites the religious motive 
which actuates the King, the commercial advantages which* will 
accrue from taking possession of La Cadie, and trading with its 
people, and the reasons for appointing Sieur de Monts the King's 
lieutenant over the territory between the 40th and 46th degrees 
North Latitude. Then follows a recital of the ample powers del- 
egated to De Monts in peace and in war, and instructions as to the 
cultivation of the land and the exploitation of the mines, from 
which the King reserves a tithe of gold, silver and copper. He is 
instructed to build forts at once and garrison them, and to expel 
from his domain all vagrants and vagabonds, and to perform a 
multitude of acts which might safely have been left to the future 
and to his discretion to do or not to do. The original concession 
signed at Fontainebleau on Nov. 8th, 1603, seems, however, to have 



82 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



omitted the most important provision, namely, the consideration. 
This is embodied in a supplementary document, signed in Paris 
by Henry IV. on the iSth of December of the same year. After 
reciting the tenor of the previous concession, he adds : *'To facili- 
tate the enterprise, and aid those who are associated with him, and 
afford them some mode and means for meeting the expense, we 
have thought it fit to concede and guarantee to them, that none of 
our subjects, except those who join with him in sharing the cost, 
will be permitted to trade for furs or other merchandise during 
a period of ten years, in the lands, harbors, rivers and routes of 
approach throughout the extent of the country under his control. 
This we command." Then follows the authority to enforce the 
exclusive concession granted for ten years for the trade in furs 
and other things with the Indians from Cape Race to the 40th 
degree of North Latitude, including all the coast of Acadia, Cape 
Breton, the Bay of St. Clair and Chaleur, the Island of Perce, 
Gaspe, Tadousac and both banks of the River of Canada, and all 
the rivers and bays on either side. The penalty for infringement 
of the concession and disobedience to the edict, is confiscation of 
vessels, stores, arms and cargo for the benefit of de Monts and his 
associates, and a fine of 30,000 Hvres ; and de Monts is empowered 
to seize all trespassers and their property, and to deliver them for 
trial to the proper authorities. In addition to these trade mon- 
opolies, Henry, by Patent dated the 8th of February, 1609, grants 
de Monts exemption from certain import duties. The Patent ex- 
plained that certain officers have obliged de Monts and his as- 
sociates to pay the same import dues on merchandise when coming 
from New France as are levied on the same goc^ds imported 
from Spain and other foreign countries, and have even levied ad- 
ditional dues on de Monts' goods when passing from province to 
province in France. An instance is quoted of twenty-two bales 
of beaver skins seized for duty at Coudre sur Narreau. To avoid 
in future such impediment to de Monts' operations, it is ordered 
that merchandise imported from Acadia, Canada and other locali- 
ties within his jurisdiction, shall not pay a heavier subsidy than the 
entry dues, and those payable ordinarily on goods passing from 
one province to another in France, and which are products of the 



ENGLISH COLONIZATION. 



83 



same, and the decree orders the restitution of the twenty-two 
bales that had been seized. 

The ill-starred adventures of de jMonts and his associates in 
Acadia and on the coast of ]\Iaine have already been referred to, 
and we have mentioned how he was induced by Champlain to 
turn his attention to the Upper St. Lawrence, as a better field for 
colonization and trade. The trading privileges were cancelled 
at the instigation of the merchants of St. ^lalo after he had en- 
joyed them for three years. The grounds of their protest were, 
that, owing to de Monts' monopoly, the price of beaver skins had 
risen; that the freedom of trade was forbidden in regions which 
had been open to the merchants of northern France from time im- 
memorial; and, as a crowning argument, that de Alonts had 
been for three years enjoying trade privileges, and had made no 
converts to Christianity. One would not suppose a suggestion 
of this nature would have carried much weight, coming as it did 
from money-making merchants, who had been for a full century 
in contact with the Indians of Labrador and Newfoundland, with- 
out giving thought to, or spending a livre on, the spiritual ad- 
vancement of the natives. But any argument is good enough to 
support a foregone conclusion. Nevertheless, on the representa- 
tion to the King by Lescarbot and others of de iMonts' friends, of 
all that the latter had done, His Majesty in 1607 renewed the 
privileges of exclusive traffic in beaver skins for one year. Les- 
carbot may well say "this was surely but a weak foundation on 
which to build a great project, and little time was allowed." A 
great project it proved to be, for, as we have seen, Quebec was 
founded within the year. 

Though France took the lead as a North American colonizer, 
England followed close on her track. She created in 1606 two 
companies whose representatives and successors were to exercise 
an incalculable influence over the destinies of mankind, — the South 
Virginia, or London Company, and the Company of Plymouth 
Adventurers. Neither was the actual corporation under which 
the Northern and Southern English colonies subsequently 
held title, nor were they really the first corporate bodies which 
tried, under English auspices, the experiment of combining trade 



84 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



and colonization on the East coast of North America. They were 
the offspring of the heroic but futile efforts made by Raleigh and 
his lieutenant in the previous century, to found a colony in Vir- 
ginia. The provisions of the Charter granted Sir Walter in 1583- 
1584, expressed conclusively the spirit which even then guided 
England in her colonization schemes. The Charter grants to the 
colonists "all the privileges of free denizens and persons native 
of England, in such ample manner as if they were born and per- 
sonally resident in our said Realm of England." And they were 
to be governed according to such statutes as shall be by him or 
them established, provided they do not contradict the law of the 
Realm. The same principles and powers underlie the constitu- 
tions of all the subsequent colonies. The contrast between these 
simple and liberal charters and the concessions, edicts, and ordi- 
nances, under which the neighboring French colony was governed, 
accounts for the opposite course followed by the respective nations 
from their birth until to-day. 

The colonization of both Virginia and Massachusetts was un- 
dertaken by trading companies, but the policy of these companies, 
however mistaken in many respects, was widely different from 
the purely selfish objects of the French companies. Moreover, 
they were popular in every sense, for the reorganized London 
Company enrolled as its shareholders 659 individuals and 56 
trade guilds. 

Holland did not escape the epidemic of colonial expansion, but 
her only attempt to gain a footing on the North American conti- 
nent was fated to have very slight results, for it is difficult 
to trace the impression made by the Dutch, except in the 
nomenclature of localities. It was in 1609 that the United Neth- 
erland Company landed a shipload of Walloons, and founded a 
port and factory at the mouth of the Hudson. England had 
claimed the territory by right of discovery, and had ceded it to one 
of the two companies which she had chartered three years pre- 
viously. But the Dutchmen remained on the Hudson and the 
Mohawk until 1664. 

In their dealing with the Iroquois, whose hankering for fire- 
arms they were only too willing to gratify, the Dutch settlers 



THE DUTCH COLONIES. 



85 



troubled their neighbors of New France and France's Indian 
alhes not a Httle ; while the trade and land regulations of New 
Netherland were almost as liberal as those of France. Holland 
cannot be said, therefore, to have created an independent phase of 
North American colonization, or to have left the impress of her 
institutions on the rising communities of the Continent, 



CHAPTER V. 

Quebec as a Trading Post Under de Monts' Company 
and Under Free Trade. 

Champlain showed keen insight when he selected as the seat of 
empire the cHlfs overhanging the narrow stretch of the mighty 
river, the most defensible site from a military point of view, and 
the best fitted by nature both as a port and as a center of trade. 
In a few sentences Champlain tells how they spent the first sum- 
mer at Quebec. "The Island of Orleans is distant from Quebec 
but a league. On arrival I went in search of a spot for our house. 
I could find none more suitable or better situated than the part 
of the Promontory of Quebec, so called by the Indians. A forest 
of birch trees and vines covered it. At once, therefore, I set some 
men to felling the trees, others to sawing planks, others to ex- 
cavating for the cellar and digging a trench, and part I sent back 
to Tadousac for those of our comrades who had been left behind 
and for the stores. My first care was to build a house within 
which to store our provisions. This was promptly and compe- 
tently done through the activity of my men, and under my own 
supervision. Near by is the St. Croix River where of yore Car- 
tier spent a winter. While carpenters toiled, and other mechan- 
ics were at work on the house, the others were busy making a 
clearance about our future abode ; for as the land seemed fertile, 
I was anxious to plant a garden and determine whether wheat 
and other cereals could not be grown to advantage." Champlain, 
in his edition of 1613, gives both a picture of the habitation and 
a map of the harbor. He seems to place his residence on the ex- 
treme point of the jutting promontory, between the St. Lawrence 
and the St. Charles, and therefore on the beach where St. Peter 
and St. Paul streets now meet. The beach was narrow and the 
cliffs rose sheer above it. There is not at present, nor can there 
have been then, any ledge above the high tide level on which to 



THE FOUNDING OF A CITY. 



87 



erect a dwelling, safe from the ice, which must have piled up 
high against the cliff during the winter. The site generally 
assigned to the habitation, namely, between the old cul de sac 
and the foot of the ravine (now Mountain street) leading to the 
summit of the cliff, or about where the Church of Notre Dame de 
la Victoire stands, is, therefore, the more probable location. When 
Champlain is arguing for the St. Charles, which he calls La Petite 
Riviere, as we still call it, as being the scene of Cartier's first win- 
ter quarters, he mentions that the shallows of that stream are 1,500 
feet from his habitation, which he says is further up the river, 
meaning doubtless the St. Lawrence. This would confirm the 
traditional site of the habitation. Champlain designates a point 
B. as that w^here they cleared away the forest to plant corn. It 
is the level ground occupied by the Ursuline Convent and Garden, 
which was, we may suppose, selected on account of its good 
soil by both the explorers, and approved of for the same reason by 
the good Sisterhood. Another point, G., would seem to indicate 
the place where they cut grass for their animals, and where, prob- 
ably, there were natural meadows or some old clearings. It is 
on the slope of the second hill from the Garden, G., and therefore 
where the glacis of the citadel has now been graded. The old 
Iroquois town of Stadacona perhaps stood there, and only brush- 
wood had grown up over the open space occupied by their lodges 
and the cultivated field of Donnecana's tribe. 

Hardly had the work of building commenced when their black- 
smith, one Jean Duval, began to hatch a scheme to kill Champlain, 
seize the property, and turn it over on behalf of Spain to the 
Basque or Spanish fishermen at Tadousac, or more probably to 
use it for piratical purposes. Duval enlisted four of his com- 
panions in the conspiracy, but they hesitated so long as to the 
best manner of dispatching Champlain that one of the ships ar- 
rived from Tadousac, and a conspirator, Antoine Natel, confided 
the whole plot to the Captain. At Champlain's suggestion the 
conspirators were induced to go on board the ship to a convivial 
gathering, and were then arrested. As there was no prison in 
Quebec, and as their presence there would interfere with the 
progress of the habitation, he took them to Tadousac and handed 



88 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



them over to the charge of Pontgrave, he himself returning at 
once to Quebec. Pontgrave followed with the prisoners, Cham- 
plain having wisely concluded that the trial and execution should 
take place at the scene of the conspiracy itself. For the trial of 
the captives he created a tribunal, consisting of himself, Pont- 
grave, the doctor, the captain, the mate and some of the sailors. 
The verdict was death. The sentence was carried out in the case 
of Duval, who was hanged and whose head was afterwards ex- 
posed on the highest pinnacle of the habitation as a warning. The 
carrying out of the sentence was suspended in the case of the 
accomplices, who were sent to France to be dealt with by de 
Monts, or as the law might dictate. It was a sad introduction to 
Champlain's administration, and may have awakened in him 
gloomy forebodings ; but happily the subsequent story of his rule, 
and the whole history of the City, have not justified any misgiving 
which may have oppressed him; for the French population of 
Quebec may well be proud of its comparative freedom from crime. 
On Sept. 1 8th Pontgrave sailed for France with three prisoners 
— of the five Duval had been hanged; the informer, it may be 
assumed, was pardoned. The residence had not yet been completed, 
and cold weather was approaching, so there must have been in- 
tense activity, not only in building but in laying stores against the 
winter. There were Indians camped near by, probably around 
the point on the St. Charles Basin, engaged in catching eels, 
between the middle of September and the middle of October. 
Cartier says that smoked eel was their principal food till February, 
when they started on their moose hunting expeditions; whoever, 
therefore, the Indians were that succeeded Donnecana's tribe, they 
looked to the same source of supply. 

Champlain describes the habitation, and depicts it in his rough 
drawing, as consisting of three separate houses, joined together. 
Each was three toises (i8 feet) long by two and a half (15 feet) 
wide. In the courtyard was erected a store house, and over it a 
watch tower, which he styled a colomhitre; a gallery on a level 
with the roof of the store house surrounded the three houses, and 
gave access to their second stories. On an esplanade in front of 
one or both sides, were mounted five cannon, and further protec- 



Champlain's First Battle with the Iroquois. 
Champlain, Edition of If) 1:5. 




( lianiphnin's nal)ilatii)ii. < liam])laiii. I'.dilion ot hil;] 



A DISTRESSING WINTER. 



89 



tion was af¥orded by the palisade and a ditch sixteen feet wide and 
six feet deep. Champlain's habitatioji was dear to him, and he con- 
tinued to add to it ; for when Father Sagard arrived in Canada on 
the eve of the Feast of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in 1623, he 
found it to be a "really fine house, surrounded by a strong wall, 
surmounted, landward, by two small towers built as a precau- 
tion but he adds that, "despite these precautions for safety, it 
w^ould not be difficult to take the place by storm, even without the 
aid of artillery." 

Lescarbot tells us that twenty-eight men remained to winter at 
Quebec. Champlain did not let this first season pass without com- 
mencing his agricultural experiments, for on the first-of October 
he sowed wheat, and on the 15th, rye, and on the 24th planted 
some grape vines. Beyond this advertisement of his desire to 
test the farming capabilities of the country, he records only the 
principal meteorological events of the season. On the 13th 
of October there was a white frost, and the leaves were 
falling on the 15th. On November i8th snow fell in quanti- 
ty, but it thawed in a couple of days. A furious snowstorm 
set in on February 5th, which lasted for forty-eight hours. 
In February the locksmith died of dysentery, brought on, as 
Champlain thought, by eating too freely of smoked eels. Les- 
carbot tells a doleful tale of the suffering of the residents. 
According to him they could not find Cartier's remedy, the an- 
nedda. We can only suppose that they could not identify it 
themselves, and that the native race who were in occupation 
in Cartier's time having disappeared, there was no one to 
point it out to them. With no provision made against scurvy, and 
no amusement to drive away homesickness, the plight of the little 
band was hardly less pitiable than that of Cartier's crew on the 
neighboring St. Charles in the previous century. What they lacked 
was fresh meat and vegetables, for they had bread enough to dole 
out even in charity to a family of starving Micmacs, who, rather 
than die of hunger, risked crossing from the south shore on the 
floating ice. The poor wretches, to the horror of the French, were 
driven to sustain life by eating the decayed carrion with which the 
fox traps were baited. 



90 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



And so the winter wore away. Spring was early, for the 
snow had melted by the 8th of April ; but the cold continued, and 
the trees did not bud until well on in May. With the advent of 
Spring and vegetation, and presumably fresh fish, scurvy, which 
Champlain supposed to be a maladie de la terre, disappeared. So 
utterly ignorant was he of the aetiology of the disease, that, in 
quoting the instance of an Indian who died of it from eating salt 
meat, he concludes that salt meat is not a remedy. On second 
thought he wonders whether it is not perhaps the cause. He may 
have acted on this hypothesis, as during the following three win- 
ters the health of his post seems to have been excellent. On the 
5th of June, 1609, when the Sieur des Marais, son-in-law of Pont- 
grave, arrived from France, he found only eight haggard represen- 
tatives of the twenty-eight hearty men whom Pontgrave had left 
to face the rigor of the winter, and of these eight, Champlain says, 
one-half were ill. Des Marais had parted from his father-in-law 
at Tadousac, whither Champlain at once went. After consultation, 
it was decided that Champlain should fulfill the promise made the 
summer previous, to accompany the Montagnais and the Hu- 
rons on a warlike expedition against the Iroquois. He there- 
fore lost no time in returning to Quebec, equipping a chaloupe, 
and starting up the river. At a league and a half above the river 
of Sainte Anne de la Perade, he met between two and three hun- 
dred Indians, Algonquins and Hurons, coming to claim the ex- 
ecution of his pledge. Then followed a long pow wow, and a 
return to Quebec with his Indian allies in his trail, where for 
three days there was dancing and feasting, with renewed promises 
of fidelity and of aid on both sides. 

What happened in this raid against the Iroquois affected 
most intimately and most momentously the fortunes of Quebec, 
for it determined the attitude of the French as friends of one 
section of the Indian population of the continent, and as enemies 
of another, and that the most powerful of all. It is not unlikely 
that it also embittered the relations of the Indian to the Euro- 
pean over the whole North American continent, for there had been 
previously little animosity between the Indians and the French in 
Acadia. It made what might have been the peaceful trading post 



A FATEFUL CAMPAIGN. 



91 



of Quebec a center of almost constant hostile preparation, and 
converted the future Province into a military colony, where mili- 
tary considerations were always uppermost, and the pursuit of 
trade and commerce was held in smaller esteem than the 
profession of arms. A further effect was to aggravate the 
inimical feeling between the French colonists and the English, 
converting mere dislike, arising out of commercial rivalries, into 
hatred and suspicion. Champlain's active alliance with the ene- 
mies of the Iroquois, both of the Algonquin and the Huron stock, 
and the inauguration of his governorship by an act of war, gave 
direction to the whole policy of France in the New World. What 
his motive was has been a subject of endless speculation. Perhaps 
he acted merely from impulse, not from policy. Every Spanish 
explorer had been a conqueror. Champlain had served his ap- 
prenticeship under Spanish and Portuguese leaders. He was a 
Frenchman in an age when France was always at war, and when 
war was regarded as the only calling becoming a gentleman. If he 
had a policy, it was dictated by considerations of trade. He had ad- 
vised de Monts and Madame de Guercheville to devote their ener- 
gies and funds to the development of the interior of the Continent, 
where they might expect to be beyond the reach of English inter- 
ference and encroachment. He had done this when the James- 
town settlement was in its infancy, and, under Ralph Lane, 
threatened with the untimely fate of Sir Walter Raleigh's Roan- 
oke Company, and before Argall had so ruthlessly harried the 
French posts on the coast of Maine and Nova Scotia. But he 
appreciated the indomitable and pushing character of the Eng- 
lish, and may have apprehended that they would sooner or later be 
the dominant power on the Atlantic seaboard. If so, some line of 
demarcation would necessarily have to be drawn, and a sphere of 
influence, if not of possession, prescribed within which the mer- 
chants of the rival nations miq-ht trade. Such a line would 
naturally be the l^pper St. Lawrence and the Lakes, whose exist- 
ence he knew of, though he dreamed not of their extent. He was 
the accent of a tradinc: company, and tlie commercial interests of 
his company were rightlv his first concern. If he enlisted on 
the side of the company a powerful tribe to the north of the 



92 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



Lakes, and also the enemies of the Iroquois in the interior of the 
Acadian Peninsula, he would monopolize the furs of his aUies and 
secure the trade of the vast interior, the illimitable extent of which, 
as described by the natives, must have set his imagination aglow. 
Should the English occupy the coast, let them ally themselves, if 
they would, with the Five Nations, and get what profit they could 
out of the fringe of territory between the Atlantic and the Lakes. 
He and his company, controlling the trade of the interior, would 
not begrudge it to them. He may not have formulated the 
forecast in so many words, but dreams of empire haunt the 
waking and sleeping thoughts of empire builders, and prescience 
akin to inspiration directs their plans. Moreover, the less pre- 
cise the geographical knowledge of such a pioneer as Champlain, 
and the slighter his acquaintance with the hmits of trade, the 
wider the scope for the play of his imagination. 

Whatever his motives may have been, the war on which he 
so lightly entered was still in progress when France — a cen- 
tury and a half later — retired from the Great River and the 
Lakes. The details of this interminable struggle, with all its 
picturesque but horrible interest, it will not be our province to de- 
scribe ; but as Quebec was the base of French warlike operations, 
we shall again and again see the motley host clustered there for 
the fray. To fight the first battle there went some three hundred 
savages in their canoes, and Champlain, Pontgrave's son-in-law, 
Des Marais, Laroutte, the pilot, and nine men, in one of the 
shallops. Pontgrave accompanied them as far as the River of St. 
Croix. A number of the Indians deserted at the mouth of the 
Richelieu. Champlain was obliged to send back all but two volun- 
teers with the shallop, from the foot of the Chambly Rapids, so 
that when they all embarked in twenty-four canoes above the 
Rapids, there were with the three Frenchmen only fifty-six In- 
dians. They met a band of the enemy on the warpath on the 
shores of Lake Champlain, which appropriately derives its name 
from its discoverer. The Iroquois fled before the deadly fire of 
the three Spanish arquebuses, loaded with four balls to a charge. 
It was their first experience of fire-arms. Yet before they 
themselves had acquired them, and learned their use, they had dis- 



nomma faln^lc Croix, que I on a 
transfcre a 15. Iieucs audc/Tus 
Qjiebtc. 




Map of the Environs of Quebec. Prom Champlain, Edition of Ifil.S, 



INDIAN BARBARITIES. 



93 



covered that numbers could successfully face even powder and 
shot. But on this the first encounter, the terror of these strange 
beings and their mysterious, murderous weapons, quenched the 
courage of these the bravest of the Indian braves. In the sug- 
gestive drawings with which Champlain illustrates his narrative, 
he always depicts his men in full panoply of war, with helmet and 
steel cuirass, he himself being distinguished by the plume in his 
hat. In reality they probably did wear armor of some kind. On the 
evening of the victory Champlain witnessed for the first time one 
of the peculiar horrors of Indian warfare — the torture of a pris- 
oner ; and, being a chivalrous man, the terrible spectacle must 
have made him reflect on the incongruity of fighting side by side 
with such allies — whether aiding them in their quarrels, or re- 
ceiving their aid in his. Barbarous as war is at the best, its bru- 
tality was displayed in all its most revolting features in Indian 
hostilities; and though Champlain probably did not fully realize 
the crime he was committing in setting the example of enlisting 
savages as his allies in war, the abominable spectacle must have 
excited in his mind a serious feeling of disquietude. As a 
consequence of his action the Iroquois sought the friendship 
of the Dutch and the English, and became their allies. But, apart 
from the direct results of such iniquitous coalitions, the fact that 
the white man was willing to embroil himself in their quarrels 
and use his weapons at their dictation, on one side or the other, 
must have done more to make them objects of suspicion and dread 
than their aggressiveness as traders and colonists. 

It was not until 1622 that the first terrible massacre of the In- 
dians was perpetrated in Virginia, and it was fourteen years later 
before the Pequod war broke out in New England. It would be 
unfair to trace back either calamity to Champlain's alliance with 
the Hurons, Algonquins, and Montagnais ; but had he held aloof 
from all participation in aboriginal politics and quarrels, and ex- 
ercised toward all alike that forbearance, tact and sympathy 
with Indian habits and tastes which made the French so much 
more successful and humane in their treatment of the aborigines 
than the Anglo-Saxon, there would not have been any direct in- 
centive towards the alliance of the Iroquois and the English. On 



94 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



the contrary, the example of the French would have been con- 
ducive to friendly relations between Europeans and the whole 
native population of the American continent. 

On the return from Lake Champlain the Hurons and Algon- 
quins left the army at the Chambly Rapids, after making the most 
profound protestations of friendship, and begging Champlain to 
visit their land and treat them as brothers, which he promised to 
do. The Montagnais, who stayed at Quebec only long enough to 
regale themselves on bread and peas, persuaded Champlain to 
give them patenotres (chaplets) with which to adorn the decapi- 
tated heads of their enemies. With these mounted on poles, and 
decorating the bows of their canoes, they approached Tadousac. 
As an acknowledgment of their indebtedness, and a pledge of 
friendship, they graciously sent him the head and arms of one of 
their unfortunate foes. These Champlain presented to the King 
— a more appropriate offering than either the donor or the receiver 
was aware of, considering the later consequences of the sum- 
mer's work. The gift, however, did not shock the King, who 
accepted it as an emblem of the habits of his new subjects. 

After Champlain's return to Quebec a large band of Algon- 
quins moved down the river, expressing themselves as full 
of regret that they had been too late to take part in the discom- 
fiture of their enemies, and presenting in token of their gratitude 
a more acceptable present than heads and arms — a gift of furs. 
Shortly afterward Champlain proceeded to the post at Ta- 
dousac, where, after Pontgrave had joined him, they both 
decided to return to France. They must have been anxious to 
know whether Henry IV. had been induced, in spite of the pro- 
test of the Malouins, to renew de Monts' trading privileges. They 
decided to put the Quebec post in charge of Captain Pierre Chavin 
of Rouen, and to leave with him fifteen men, all provision having 
been made for their welfare, and the store stocked with more 
suitable food than on previous occasions. Owing doubtless to 
this circumstance, the health of the sixteen was unimpaired in 
the following Spring. Champlain and Pontgrave took a boat to 
Tadousac on the ist of September, and set sail thence for France. 

Not a word is said in either of Champlain's narratives as to the 



BUSINESS PERPLEXITIES. 



95 



financial results of the year's work, secrecy then, as now, being 
one of the maxims of trade. On their arrival, both went to the 
Company's headquarters at Rouen to consult de ^lonts' partners, 
Collier and Gendre, before reporting to de Monts himself. Then 
Champlain, at an audience with the King, described his adven- 
tures and presented his ^lajesty with a girdle embroidered with 
porcupine quills. They determined to maintain their Quebec 
establishment, and to continue the exploitation of the Great 
River under the guidance of Champlain in alliance with the 
Hurons. It was therefore decided to send Pontgrave to Tadou- 
sac, and he was commissioned to lay in a cargo consisting in part 
of merchandise for barter and in part of provisions. In return for 
undertaking and preparing to explore the Great River and open 
channels of trade never before tapped, de Monts claimed a new 
concession, his old having expired a twelvemonth ago; but the 
petition was rejected. Though the refusal to renew de Alonts' 
privileges may have been forced on Henry by the necessity for 
propitiating the merchants of Normandy and Brittany, and 
though it must have jarred on his good nature to deny a request 
to one so conspicuous for public spirit and public services, he did 
not, in so doing, contradict his principles. There are traceable in 
Henry's schemes the germs of a freer trade policy than has even 
yet found acceptance in France. To close the St. Lawrence to 
all the world save a company of greedy traders would naturally 
be repugnant to the mind of the monarch who agreed to Article 
IV. of the Treaty with Sultan Achmct I., "that all the nations of 
Europe, the English included, should trade freely in the Levant 
under the flag and the protection of France, and under the direc- 
tion of the counsel of France." 

But although de Monts' petition was refused, he and his as- 
sociates bravely determined to carry out their plans, and Cham- 
plain and Pontgrave sailed away fmm Honflcur. During his win- 
ter in France Champlain seems again to have endeavored to in- 
duce Madame de Gucrchevillc to enlist in his schemes, but with 
no better success than formerly. His ships carried provisions 
sufficient to maintain the little colony for another winter, ar- 
tisans to extend it, and merchandise for traffic. But contrary 



96 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



winds having driven him into an EngHsh port, he returned to 
France, and it was the 8th of April before he finally set sail for 
the Colony. He made a short voyage, and arrived in Tadousac 
on the 27th of April, but, quick as he had been, the unchartered 
traders had already preceded him. Here he found the Montag- 
nais Indians eager for traffic, but still more eager to enhst him in 
their wars ; and he made a one-sided promise to accompany them 
in the following year on an expedition to a great sea whose further 
shore you could not see — evidently, either the Hudson Bay, or 
Lake Mistassini. But Champlain's immediate object was to ac- 
company the Hurons to their home on the Georgian Bay and fight 
with them against the Iroquois. As he says, "he rejoiced at 
having two strings to his bow, for if one snapped, he could play 
upon the other." 

The young Sieur Pierre du Pare had come down from Quebec 
and relieved his anxiety as to the welfare of his comrades. The 
winter had been mild and short. They seldom lacked fresh meat, 
and though there had been some sickness, all were well again. He 
had learned, as he says, that with health and fresh food, life could 
be preserved as well in Canada as in France during the long win- 
ter months. He left Tadousac after only a two days' rest, and 
reaching Quebec found his little colony of fifteen under Pierre 
Chavin all alive and in good health, as reported. A chief called 
Batiscan with his band of savages was there ready to welcome him 
with songs and dances. They were speedily joined by sixty Mon- 
tagnais, willing to aid him if he would aid them with his arque- 
buses against their foes. He was now a competitive trader, and he 
tells us how he cajoled the wily savages. 'They said, 'See how 
many Basques and Malouins there are here now, and they all offer 
to be our allies and to fight for us. What do you think ? Speak 
the truth.' 'No, they won't,' I answered, and I pointed out that 
their only object was to wheedle them out of their furs. The 
Indians were convinced and said, 'You speak truly. They are 
nothing but women and only want to make war upon our beavers.' 
They made some other jokes and talked over their plans 
for making war. They agreed to leave and await me at 
Three Rivers, thirty leagues above Quebec, where I promised to 



SECOXD ATTACK OX THE IROQUOIS. 



97 



join them with four boatloads of merchandise to be exchanged 
for their peltries, and for those of the Hurons, who were to join us 
with 400 warriors at the mouth of the Richelieu, as had been 
agreed upon the year before." To what degree the expiry of de 
Monts' concession had induced Champlain the year before (1609) 
to join the Hurons and some of the Algonquin tribes in their war 
upon the Iroquois, as a means of cementing friendly trade rela- 
tions, it is not easy to determine ; but we see clearly from his jour- 
nal, that he considers that the strongest weapon he could now 
wield against his French rivals in business was an offensive and 
defensive alliance with the enemies of the Iroquois. Do what 
he might, however, the competition was sharp and ruinous, 
for Lescarbot, after quoting other reasons which the mer- 
chants of St. Malo used against de ^lonts' concession, says, 
"I am not retained to defend his cause, but this I do know, that 
to-day, with trade free, beaver skins sell at twice the price to 
the Indians which they formerly did, for the greed of the mer- 
chants is so uncontrollable that, in bidding against one another, 
they spoil their own game. Eight years ago a beaver skin could 
be had for a couple of loaves or a knife, but to-day an Indian de- 
mands fifteen or twenty. And, in this year of grace 1610, there 
are traders who have given all their goods gratuitously to the 
savages simply to hurt the trade of the Sieur de Poutrincourt 
(Sieur de Monts' old partner in Acadia). Such is the envy and 
avarice of men." 

The summer was spent, as was the last, in war against the 
Iroquois. Ascending the river Champlain was joined by the 
Montagnais at Three Rivers. While they and some of the rival 
traders were camped at the mouth of the Richelieu, an Algonquin 
canoe arrived and warned him that the Iroquois to the number 
of one hundred were strongly barricaded in the neighborhood. 
Champlain and some of his men followed the Indians to the at- 
tack. The savages rushed impetuously ahead, and were being 
severely handled by the Iroquois when Champlain and his men 
came to their assistance. Before the fight closed, by the assault 
of the palisaded enclosure, a young trader from St. Malo, called 
Gibraire (Gabriel), one of his rivals, was moved by the sound of 



98 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



battle to follow and engage in the fray. A complete rout ensued, 
and fifteen prisoners were taken. One was at his request given 
to Champlain; the others suffered, some of them at once, others 
subsequently at the hands of the squaws, the usual exquisite tor- 
ture. Then trade succeeded war, and, as not infrequently hap- 
pens, those who had been backward as warriors succeeded best 
as merchants. Champlain bemoans the fact that his rivals, who 
had risked nothing as explorers or as soldiers, nevertheless se- 
cured the bulk of the peltries. 

Whether, on the whole, Champlain was as successful in trade 
as in war during that summer he does not tell, but, on arriving at 
Quebec, he decided to return with little delay to France. Pont- 
grave wished to winter in Quebec, but Champlain argued 
that, from appearances at the moment — ^by which we may 
presume he meant a scarcity or high price of skins — nothing would 
be gained by his remaining. He further urged that his testimony 
as to the effect on trade of the ruinous competition created by the 
Norman and Breton merchants, might aid his employers in plead- 
ing for a concession. The argument convinced Pontgrave and he 
consented to accompany his chief. When these questions were 
settled, Champlain says : "We resolved that Du Pare, who had 
wintered in Quebec with Captain Pierre, should be left in charge, 
and that Captain Pierre should return to France by reason of cer- 
tain business which required his presence there. We therefore 
left Du Pare in command of sixteen men, whom we admonished 
to live wisely in the fear of God, to obey their chief and leader, 
Du Pare, as though he were ourselves. All of which they prom- 
ised to do, and pledged themselves to abide in peace one with 
another." The garden was well stocked when they left early on 
August 15th, 1610, despairing evidently of gathering more furs by 
a longer stay on the river. How it befell the Tadousac post he 
does not tell, but probably ill, for de Monts' privilege, as we 
know, had expired, and trade on the St. Lawrence from the 
mouth to the Lakes being free, it had been, as usually happens, 
overdone. Champlain remarks with a certain ill-disguised satis- 
faction, on "the loss which a number of merchants had sustained, 
who had laid in great stores of merchandise and equipped a fleet 



PLANS FOR EXPLORATION. 



99 



of vessels in the hope of doing a profitable traffic in furs" ; adding 
that "their preparations were out of all proportion to the amount 
of trade, so that some of them will remember for many a day the 
ruin which overtook them here." The losses were probably not 
confined to his rivals. 

What business arrangements were made during the winter of 
1610-1611 we are not told. We know that no concessions were 
granted, but the old partnership between de Monts, Collier, and 
Poutrincourt was maintained. Before Champlain sailed in the 
spring he married the Demoiselle Helene Boulle, a daughter of 
the secretaire de la chamhre du roi (secretary of the King's 
chamber). It was rather a contract of marriage than a marriage 
itself, for the girl was only a child of twelve. It is stated that by 
way of dot de Boulle extended material assistance to the Canadian 
schemes of de Monts and Champlain. De Boulle was a Huguenot. 
Whether it was a marriage or a betrothal, it did not detain him, for 
the lover set sail on the ist of March. Being beset v/ith ice, he did 
not reach Tadousac till the 13th of May. Snow covered the 
ground, but early as it was, and expeditious as he had been, three 
trading vessels had reached the Saguenay before him. They had 
gained nothing by haste, however, for the Indians, who had be- 
come masters of finesse, refused to trade till the whole fleet had 
arrived, and until, under the stimulus of many bidders, the price 
of their wares should rise. Leaving Pontgrave at Tadousac to 
get what share he could of the trade, Champlain himself pro- 
ceeded to Quebec. His Indian friends of the year before were 
there to welcome him. He had already acquired some knowledge of 
the Richelieu and Lake Champlain, and may have foreseen that the 
English would pre-empt wliat traffic there was with the Iroquois, 
and the seaboard tribes. He therefore looked toward the north 
and wished to explore, by way of the St. Maurice from Three 
Rivers, that vast country where the Saguenay Indians hunted, 
hoping to tap it at some inland point not so easily reached as was 
Tadousac by his rivals in trade. He therefore proposed such a 
summer voyage to his dusky ally, P.atiscan, but his su.cf.trestion was 
met by an ofifer to guide him thither next year, not tliat summer. 
The Indian probably divined his motive, and was by no means in- 

^' OF C. 



100 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

clined to further any scheme for monopoHzing trade. There was 
at the post the agent of another company, *'a young man from Ro- 
chelle named Trefort," who offered to accompany him on his 
summer expedition, but Champlain very naturally refused: he 
had his own plans and motives for the trip, and had no notion of 
being any one else's guide, especially if it were to his own preju- 
dice ; if the young man were bent on going, there were other com- 
panions for him to choose from ; certainly he, Champlain, was not 
going to help him to find new paths for commerce. Clearly de 
Monts' rivals had followed him above Tadousac, and were not only 
watching every motion of his agents, but were inculcating danger- 
ous precepts and suspicions in the minds of the Indians. Cham- 
plain therefore made haste to assemble his Huron allies at the 
rendezvous at the foot of the rapids near old Hochelaga, where the 
year before they had agreed to meet on the 20th of May. While 
waiting for them, he was joined on the ist of June by Pontgrave, 
who had been unable to do anything at Tadousac. The buyers 
were too many, and the price of furs was probably higher than he 
had been accustomed to pay. But his rivals had been equally un- 
fortunate, for a goodly company followed him up the river to com- 
pete with him there for trade. A few days afterward four or five 
more barks arrived, the owners of which had been unsuccessful at 
Tadousac. 

At length the Hurons arrived, and with them the French lad 
v^^hom Champlain had entrusted to them, and who in the interval 
had learned their language and appeared habited in native cos- 
tume. On the other hand the Indians welcomed with joy the 
hostage whom they had delivered to Champlain in the previous 
summer, and who had returned from France with many a story 
of French greatness and of Champlain's influence. They testified 
their satisfaction by turning their back on the other traders, whose 
presence in such numbers had aroused their suspicion or their 
cupidity, and making a treaty with Champlain. In confirmation 
they gave him one hundred beaver skins, and subsequently traded 
for all they had, which was little. Then followed a nocturnal 
council in which Champlain took part, pledging his faith to aid 
them. The deliberations turned on the point as to whether they 



NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE HURONS. 



lOI 



should allow the boy of a certain rival French trader to winter 
with them, as Champlain's emissary had done the previous year. 
Champlain dare not avow his jealousy of his French brethren, lest 
he should v/eaken the Indians' fear of that little band of white 
faces isolated in a boundless wilderness; but he dexterously 
managed to frustrate his rival's scheme. Then came other bands 
of Indians from the distant lakes with a few beaver skins, where- 
upon fresh protestations of friendship and pledges of assistance 
were given, and another youth was assigned to the Hurons. 

Thus passed the summer in the neighborhood of the Lake of 
the Two Mountains. Little actual business was done; not 
many beaver skins were obtained; but the prudent leader was 
gathering information; promoting a good understanding with 
the Indians who lived to the north of the river and the lakes; 
and weakening the influence of his French competitors in trade. 
In Quebec he saw to the repairs of the habitation; planted some 
rose trees; loaded a cargo of oak, which he hoped would prove 
acceptable in France for wainscoting; then paid a visit to the 
company's other trading post at Tadousac, where, after taking 
counsel with Pontgrave, he decided to return to France, which 
he did in the ship of a certain Captain Tibaut of Rochelle, presum- 
ably one of his rivals, nevertheless a friend, arriving at La 
Rochelle on September lo, 1611. He told de Monts the story 
of what had happened, of his plans for the future, of the 
treaty with the Hurons, involving a promise to help them in their 
wars if they would accord him preferences in trade ; of the advan- 
tage this would give the society over their rivals, apart from the 
fact that a post on one of the great lakes, far above marine 
navigation, would be inaccessible to the casual trader. De 
Monts, with his habitual energy and courage, was ready to risk 
more, even though the past season had been so disastrous, and 
though the maintenance of the two posts at Tadousac and Quebec, 
and the founding of two others, one at Mont Royal and one in the 
country of the Hurons, would draw heavily on his pecuniary re- 
sources. His more prudent partners, however, did not share his 
enthusiasm, and refused to participate in the risk. Thereupon de 
Monts, nothing daunted, was proceeding to negotiate with them 



102 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

as to the terms upon which they would be wiUing to sell out their 
interest in the Habitation de Quebec, when circumstances oc- 
curred — Champlain's narrative does not explain what they were — 
that obliged de Monts to change his mind, and to retire finally 
from the struggle which he had waged uninterruptedly against 
adverse fortune for twelve years, and from the heroic but futile 
attempt to found a new France in the New World on the basis 
of a narrow trade policy. Yet of all the pioneers of France in 
this New World of ours, none is more worthy of honorable re- 
cognition, and none has received it less than de Monts. His own 
personality has always been overshadowed by that of his more 
active associates, Poutrincourt, Champlain, even Pontgrave. 

Champlain now steps forward as principal, not as a subordi- 
nate : as the lieutenant of the Prince de Conde, not as the mere 
manager of a mercantile company. But whatever his role, our 
eyes are riveted on him as the chief actor on the stage, one 
who never failed to play his part with energy and courage, if not 
always with judgment. 

Upon the dissolution of the old company of de Monts, Collier 
and le Gendre, Champlain determined to carry on the enterprise 
himself, if he could command the means. He was the more im- 
pelled to persevere by the glowing report sent him from the lake 
country by some of the men who had accompanied a small Huron 
band up the Ottawa, and had met the main body of the Indians 
descending to the rendezvous. On returning, his messengers had 
found him gone ; but his competitors were there, and tried to wean 
away his allies, who were naturally disheartened at his non-appear- 
ance and by reports of his death. His men had taken upon them- 
selves, in his absence, to promise that in the following spring he 
would join them and wipe out their enemies. This pledge he deter- 
mined to redeem. The objects of his special aversion, because prob- 
ably his keenest rivals, were the merchants of St. Malo. The reason 
they alleged against privileged companies trading in the St. 
Lawrence, apart from the general principle, was that if the right 
to trade was to be confined to those who made discovery, then St. 
Malo, the birthplace of Jacques Cartier, should decidedly have the 



THE DE MONTS COMPANY SUPERSEDED. 



103 



preference. Champlain found the argument so hard to answer 
that for once it ruffled his imperturbable good humor. 

One reason why de Monts' partners hesitated to incur further 
risk may have been the altered status of the Protestants of France, 
to which body de Monts and probably his associates belonged. 
For the same reason it was politic on Champlain's part to seek 
support, not from merchants, but from a statesman of the Royal 
House ; one who, commanding influence at court, could procure 
concessions when mere traders could not, and effectually resist the 
protests of merchants of provincial towns. Such a partner was 
Charles de Bourbon, the Count de Soissons. He, however, died 
on November 12, 1612, and his commission as governor w^as 
transferred by the Queen Regent to Henry de Bourbon, Prince 
of Conde. He appointed Champlain his lieutenant. 

Up to this date Quebec had been a mere trading post, 
consisting of a single habitation, protected by a palisade like 
the Hudson Bay posts of the present day. Although it had 
entered the plans of de Monts to found a colony in the full 
sense of the term, the effort had evidently not been seriously 
made. The very short tenure of his slight concessions, and the 
refusal of a renewal, w^ere cause enough to deter him from so 
costly an undertaking. Women and children were not sent out 
by him, nor yet were there any priests, who, despite the Huguenot 
proclivities of de Monts and his partners, would certainly have ac- 
companied any band of permanent colonists ; for Champlain, a 
Catholic himself, would not have led forth a body of Frenchmen 
with their families to live and die without the consolations of 
religion. The little band of laborers and mechanics, who occupied 
the habitation as de Monts' employees, found more or less 
occupation in supplying the post with meat by hunting and 
fishing; in lumbering: in boat and ship building; in cultivating 
the little garden ; in traffic with the Indians, and in doing nothing, 
which is still the most congenial occupation of all such small com- 
munities isolated in the wilderness. We know the names of two 
only of these first inhabitants of Quebec — Captain Pierre Chavin, 
and Captain Du Pare. We know that one of them at anv rate 
was not a permanent resident ; the task of defending the post dur- 



104 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

ing the long, weary winter was not a grateful one, and Champlain 
did not impose that duty on the same members of his crew year 
after year. It is true the house was comfortable ; the climate was 
understood, and the season for fishing and the habits of the game, 
which, though not plentiful, was by no means scarce, had become 
known ; consequently neither cold nor scarcity of fresh provisions, 
bred disease, not one death being reported after the first year's 
attack of scurvy. Nevertheless, the task of wintering in Quebec 
was not a pleasant one. The habitation as yet was prob- 
ably the only house; for we are not led to suppose that the free 
traders from St. Malo and La Rochelle, though they watched 
Champlain's every movement and dogged his steps, built any per- 
manent structure on the Quebec beach. Notwithstanding there 
had been three years of free trade, and the ships of their rival 
fleets came year after year in increasing numbers, there is no men- 
tion of their crews wintering on the river. On the contrary 
Champlain says "they exposed themselves to needless danger 
from, the ice through their insatiate greed, and their haste to be 
first at the trading points." 

Probably for four years there was actual freedom of trade on 
the St. Lawrence, for Champlain's commission as lieutenant of 
the Count de Soissons is dated in October, 1612, or more than 
a year after his return to France with Captain Tibaut of La 
Rochelle. During that year of disappointment and of anxiety 
while trying to organize a new company under his own control ; 
and of revived, though interrupted hopes, when he succeeded first 
in interesting in his enterprise the powerful Charles de Bourbon, 
Governor of Dauphin and Normandy, and then the uncle of that 
nobleman, Henry of Bourbon, the Governor of Guyenne, the in- 
dependent traders had undisputed control both of the lower and 
of the upper reaches of the river. 

With the year 1612 passed the initial stage of the history of 
Quebec, for with the appointment of Henry of Conde as Governor 
and Lieutenant-General of New France, and Champlain as his 
lieutenant, the old tradinsf privileges, though with a restricted 
area, were again granted. They do not appear in the concession of 
Charles of Bourbon, but in Charles' commission to Champlain, 



REGULATION OF THE ST. LAWRENCE TRADE. IO5 

dated October 15, 1612, authority is delegated him to pursue all 
trespassers within described limits. He is instructed, by peace- 
able means or by war, to bring the Indians to a knowledge of the 
true faith ; but if possible to live in amity, and to trade with them. 
To that end he is to push discovery and exploration, but es- 
pecially of the country above Quebec and of the rivers flowing 
into the upper St. Lawrence, in the hope of finding a route to 
China and the East Indies, and of discovering mines of gold and 
other metals. He is thus commissioned to do what only in our 
own generation has been accomplished. The commission proceeds 
— "and wherever the said Champlain shall find Frenchmen or men 
of other nations trading or holding any communication with the 
Indians at or above Quebec, which district is reserved by Her 
Majesty, the Queen Regent, he is authorized to seize these ves- 
sels, merchandise, and all their property, and to take the ships 
thus captured to France to one of the ports of Normandy, where 
they will be condemned by the proper tribunal." A compromise 
was thus established between Champlain and his rivals of St. 
Malo and La Rochelle. The river was to be open to free trade 
as high as Quebec. The old post of Tadousac, which had been 
frequented by merchants and sailors since the time of Jacques 
Cartier, was to remain open, but the country west of Quebec, 
which it was the intention of the new company to penetrate, and 
to which Champlain with justice laid claim, on the ground that he 
and his old associates had already risked much in exploring it, was 
to be closed to outside traders. Quebec would thus continue to be 
virtually a frontier post of the trading company, and, as we shall 
see, its growth was to be dwarfed by the swaddling clothes of 
trade restrictions and selfish trade regulations for many a year. 



CHAPTER VL 



Canadian Adventurers Under the Prince of Cond^ and 
the Arrival of the RecoIIet Fathers, J612-I6t8. 

The second company of Quebec adventurers, though as strenu- 
ously bent on trade as its predecessor, was moved by a more 
determined spirit of colonization, and by a more sincere, though 
not very ardent, desire to Christianize the Indians. The very 
transitory concessions under which de Monts ventured to com- 
mence trading on the upper St. Lawrence in 1608, and the dis- 
astrous competition he had to meet after one year of protection 
had elapsed, did not encourage him to expend money on a coloni- 
zation scheme which could not by any possibility redound to his 
profit. And it must be remembered that individually no French- 
men then left the mother country — few do even yet — at their 
own risk and on their own initiative, to sink their fortune in 
the wilds of an unknown and barbarous land. Even English 
colonists of that date emigrated as members of an organization, as 
shareholders, for instance, in trading companies, such as that of 
Virginia, or as a congregation of worshippers, following their 
pastor and retaining their ecclesiastical identity. This was the 
case with some of the New England settlements. De Monts and 
his associates were Huguenots. In attempting to colonize 
Acadia he had made the unfortunate experiment of associating 
in the work of evangelization Roman Catholic priests with 
Protestant divines. He had found that they were more 
active in quarreling with one another than in converting the 
heathen, and he was not prompted, therefore, to repeat the at- 
tempt to mitigate the cold of a Canadian winter by the heat of 
ecclesiastical polemics. There was sure to be discord enough 
in the habitation without infusing the bitterness of religious 
controversy. Consequently he omitted from his crew all clergy, 
both Catholic and Reformed. There was no missionary spirit 



PLANS OF COLONIZATION. 



107 



among the Protestant communities of Europe, and least of all 
in France, where the whole energy of dissent was expended 
in the arduous task of propagating opinions and practices 
which were not in harmony with the taste of the masses, and in 
fighting with carnal weapons for liberty of conscience and politi- 
cal freedom ; both of which would have followed sooner or 
later, had the reformers gained the upper hand and influenced the 
opinions of the whole of the French people. Worried by past 
failures and struggling with a difficult financial problem, de Monts 
took no other steps towards fulfilling the very religious aims 
assigned by the least religious of monarchs as the prime motive 
for striving — principally at other people's expense — to extend the 
domain of France. The King's professed object was the conver- 
sion of the savages. It would be presumptuous to assert that even 
Francis I., with all his moral obliquity, was not sincere in his de- 
sire to bring the blessings of Holy Church, which he had himself 
often found consolatory, within reach of the benighted heathen. 
De Monts and his associates, however, must have appreciated the 
utter impossibility of winning over the red man to the philosophy 
of Calvin, or of influencing his imagination by the bare and bald 
form of worship which the Huguenots had substituted for the im- 
pressive and highly dramatic ritual of Rome. Consequently, when 
Henry IV. died under the hand of the assassin, and they had 
lost his support, which was at least sympathetic, if not active, 
and which would certainly have protected them from injustice, 
the company, and even de Monts himself, probal)ly decided that 
the true policy was to spend as little, and save as much as they 
honestly could, during the brief term of life that their enemies 
would allow to their organization. The political status of their 
successors, Charles of Bourbon, and, on his death, another 
Bourbon, Henry, Prince of Conde, both princes of the blood, 
was widely diff'erent. Nevertheless, the progress of coloniza- 
tion under the new organization was but little more rapid 
than under de Monts. In 1622 Cliamplain said the population of 
Quebec was only 50 persons, including women and children ; by 
1624 it had increased to 61 ; in 1626 to 65, and when in t62(S Louis 
Kirke captured Quebec the whole population, including a family 



I08 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

at Cap Tourmente, was between 55 and 60 ; though, if the priests 
and friars and the French to the number of 20 in the Huron coun- 
try be included, the number of inhabitants in the whole of Canada 
must be reckoned at about 100. All these, not excepting the 
priests, were dependent for their support on the company. There 
was no inducement offered to casual self-supporting immigrants 
to establish themselves in the country. 

When Champlain returned to Quebec in Pontgrave's ship on 
May 7, 1613, he had been absent for twenty-one months. For 
two winters, therefore, the little company of pioneers, which he 
found safe and sound, had been left to their own resources, unless 
possibly Pontgrave had visited them in the summer of 161 2. They 
were not, however, without news of the outside world, for the 
skippers of St. Malo and La Rochelle had taken advantage of 
Champlain's detention in France to ingratiate themselves with the 
Indians, and to push their trade even with the remoter Ottawa and 
Huron tribes. It was the last year that they could traffic untram- 
meled, for, though the terms of the Association under the Prince 
of Conde permitted any merchant to be a member and to share in 
its trade, this provision did not satisfy the merchants of Rouen and 
St. Malo. It was probably limited by conditions that made the 
concession valueless, though the company would seem to have been 
constituted on the plan of the English Regulated Companies of 
the sixteenth century, which allowed any member to trade on 
his own account within the sphere of the company's operations. 
This concession was all the merchants could wring in the mean- 
time out of the Government. Under it three vessels from Rouen, 
one from La Rochelle, and another from St. Malo were fitted 
out, one of the conditions being that the crew of each vessel should 
furnish four men to Champlain in the exploratory and predatory 
expedition which he had promised the Hurons to make into the 
country of the Iroquois. At this stage of progress the Parliament 
of Rouen interfered, forbidding the publication of the King's de- 
cree within the limits of its jurisdiction, as being an infringement 
of its prerogative, though, if Champlain's suspicions were correct, 
the action was taken at the instance of the merchants of St. Malo. 
The Parliament having been persuaded to withdraw its opposition, 



CHAMPLAIN AT SAULT ST. LOUIS. 



109 



Champlain's concession was published in all the ports of Nor- 
mandy. There embarked with him a certain L'Ange, a Parisian 
and a poet, who, having just indited an ode to Champlain as a pre- 
face to his volume of travels published in the same year of 161 3, 
was now bent on assisting his hero to discover the road to the 
Orient. In his apostrophe to Henry IV. he avers : 

Si le ciel t'eut laisse plus long temps ici bas, 

Tu nous eusse assemble la France avec la Chine. 

Had heaven but left thee longer here below, 
France had been linked to China before now. 

They arrived at Tadousac the 29th of April, by the same tide 
as the Sieur de Boyer of Rouen who had sailed before them, and 
who, we may presume, was one of the partners. The next day 
two vessels of St. Alalo came into port, which had sailed be- 
fore the Parliament of Rouen had permitted the King's commis- 
sion and the concession of the company to be published in Nor- 
mandie. The owners promised to respect the privilege granted 
to the company, but Champlain nevertheless lost no time in push- 
ing on to Quebec. Even there he only tarried six days before 
ascending the river to Sault St. Louis, where he hoped to find 
Hurons willing to guide him into the interior. In this he was 
disappointed ; one band was awaiting him, but they had taken two 
prisoners, and must hurry home that their women might have 
the pleasure of torturing them. Another band descended the 
Ottawa with a i)altry lot of furs, but they complained of ill- 
treatment at the hands of the French traders the year before, 
and would not accept Champlain's protestations of friendship 
and promise of aid as sincere. At length he secured two canoes 
and one Indian as a guide, with which to explore the Ottawa 
and verify the wonderful talcs told by Nicolas de Vignau, the 
Frenchman who had wintered with the Indians in 1611-12, and 
who had seen with his own eyes the great north sea, perhaps the 
Hudson P)ay. The summer was spent in exploring the Ottawa, 
and incidentally proving the said Nicolas de Vignau to be the most 



no QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

impudent and consummate liar that Champlain had met for many 
a day. On returning to Sault St. Louis, or probably his quarters 
on the island of St. Helen, a spot of pleasant associations, as he 
named it after his wife, he was met by L'Ange, who told him of 
the arrival of the Sieur de Maisonneuve, with a passport from 
Mons. le Prince, as proof of membership, and three ships. Cham- 
plain had already warned the Indians against trading with un»- 
authorized merchants, but on Maisonneuve's arrival he introduced 
him to the savages as a friend; and if he was the Sieur Paul de 
Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, who in 1641 helped to found 
Montreal, he was worthy of the title. The Sieur de Maisonneuve 
offering him a passage to France, two vessels were left at the 
Sault, till the Indians should return from the wars with, it was 
hoped, more peltries than they had yet produced. Champlain and 
L'Ange then dropped down the stream with their host, and, pass- 
ing Quebec, reached Tadousac on the 6th of July. There they 
remained, either to trade or because the weather was unfavor- 
able, until August 8, when they sailed for France. 

Thus another year passed uneventfully over Quebec. As it 
was at the headwaters of free trade, many a captain of St. Malo 
and La Rochelle anchored in the stream in the hope of doing 
some business with the Indians ; but Champlain and Maisonneuve, 
aided by Sieur Georges of Rochelle, Sieur Boyer of Rouen, and 
members of the company, stopped all descending traffic. We 
can imagine the angry protests of the disappointed competitors for 
the fur trade, as around their camp fires under the cliffs, groups 
of sailors and traders discussed their hardships with one another 
and with the residents. 

Champlain spent, doubtless not unwillingly, well-nigh the 
whole of the next two years with his wife in France, though 
the troubles of the company fully occupied his time. He found 
it very difficult, as promoters of monopoly find it to-day, to per- 
suade the advocates of competition that their interests and the 
public good are forwarded by a restrictive or protective policy. 
The merchants of La Rochelle, the stronghold of Huguenot in- 
dependence, seemed to be most reluctant to join the association, 
and delayed so long in claiming their one-third, that the com- 



THE RECOLLETS INVITED TO CANADA. Ill 

pany was formed without them, and a one-half interest, instead of 
one-third, was assigned to the merchants of Rouen and St. Malo 
respectively. Finding themselves excluded, the traders of La 
Rochelle obtained from the Prince, by fraud — par surpris, as 
Champlain calls it — a license for one vessel, which, as he says, 
''was by the kind permission of God, wrecked near Ta- 
dousac." The company confiscated its cargo, though the catas- 
trophe did not happen within the sphere of their privileges ; l)ut 
as the court confirmed the confiscation, we may assume that the 
company acted within its rights. There is no reason for attribut- 
ing the seizure to religious bigotry, as is done by Abbe Faillon. 

Besides acquiring an extension of the franchise for his com- 
pany to eleven years, and regulating the conduct of its affairs, 
Champlain took the first step towards converting his trading 
post of Quebec into a settled community, and really founding 
a colony, by making provision for religious instruction and 
civil administration. His patron, Charles of Bourbon, was an 
ardent Catholic prince, and Champlain adhered to the ancient 
faith, though most of the company's supporters were Huguenots. 
No drastic measure had yet been proposed to exclude the Re- 
formers either from participation in the affairs of the company 
or from becoming members of the colony, but Champlain's recol- 
lections of de Monts' attempt to introduce freedom of worship 
at Port Royal deterred him from making a similar experiment at 
Quebec. Yet while he determined to seek the services of a Roman 
Catholic organization, he selected a branch of the more tolerant 
Franciscan order in preference to Madame Guercheville's ad- 
visers, the Jesuits, with whom his intercourse had probably not 
been altogether pleasant. Champlain commenced his inquiries 
in 1614, and was led to negotiate first with the papal nuncio, and 
then with the General of the Franciscans, through the Sieur 
Houel, secretary of the King, and Comptroller General of the 
Saline de Brouagc. The General of the order, Pere de Verger, 
hesitated for a time to embark on this new mission, and thus 
the sailing of the four Rccollet missionaries was delayed until 
161 5. The men chosen were Father Denis Janiay, commis- 
sionnaire ; Monsigneur Jean d'Olbeau, prefect, to be his successor 



112 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

in case of death ; Joseph Le Caron, and Pacifique du Plessis. They 
sailed from Honfleur with Champlain himself in the ''St. Etienne" 
of 315 tons burden, under command of Pontgrave, and landed at 
Tadousac on the 26th of May. Father d'Olbeau, in his eagerness 
to reach his mission, hurried forward alone in the first boat leav- 
ing for Quebec; the others followed several days later, when 
Champlain had completed his preparations for his voyage to the 
Sault St. Louis. We may therefore infer that Tadousac was, even 
at this date, better supplied than the habitation at Quebec with 
boats and naval stores. 

With the advent of the priests at Quebec, the character of the 
future colony was determined. Though the majority of the 
company's financial supporters may have been Huguenots, the 
colony was to be exclusively under Roman Catholic control in 
matters ecclesiastical and theological. Coligny's hopes of forming 
colonies in Brazil and Florida, where men might worship God as 
their consciences, not the church and the State, might dictate, 
had been frustrated. When Henry IV., with his Protestant 
education and liberal proclivities, had fallen a victim to the 
assassin, it was a foregone conclusion that the concessions to 
Reform, made by the Edict of Nantes, would at least not be 
enlarged, and that consequently Huguenot immigration and 
commercial enterprise would not be encouraged in the French 
colonies. Furthermore, at a later period, when the outcome of 
religious reform in England had been the destruction of the 
monarchy, the execution of the King, and the establishment 
of a commonwealth, it is not to be wondered at if no Huguenot 
was permitted to enter and sow discord and his pernicious doc- 
trines in a community where the Jesuits and Marie of Medici 
held sway. But it was well for Canada that her first missionaries 
were followers of the gentle Francis d'Assisi, and that she never 
had to cower under the tyranny of the Dominicans, nor submit to 
their methods of evangelization; for the records of the Order of 
St. Dominic in the New World illustrate strikingly the warping 
efi^ects which bigotry will produce on human character. In 
the early days of Spanish domination, the Dominicans were the 
most strenuous defenders of the oppressed Indians. If good and 



SAINTS AND INQUISITORS. 



merciful men are canonized in heaven, Las Casas is there a saint, 
even though the honor has not been conferred upon him on 
earth ; and yet the members of the same order presided over 
the inconceivable barbarities of the Lima Inquisition. The Church 
of France, under the frenzy of political and religious excitement, 
may have sung paeans over the massacre of St. Bartholomew, 
but it tolerated only for a short time the cold, calculating and 
insatiable cruelty of the Holy Office. The exclusion from Canada 
of the Huguenots was not the only reason why the orthodox 
heresy hunters did not follow their game thither, for they found 
full scope for their fiendish instincts in Spanish America, where 
no senses less keen than theirs could have detected the faintest 
odor of heresy. The truth is that the Inquisition was always 
abhorrent to the more tolerant French character. To this happy 
circumstance it was doubtless due that, even in the most modified 
form, this unholy office was never exercised in Canada. There 
were a few heretics burned in France, but they were not all men 
holding anti-papal views. Of the twenty-five "spirituals," for in- 
stance, one of the many subordinate orders of St. Francis, who 
were cited to appear at Avignon in 13 17 before Pope John XXII., 
and who, despite the papal command, continued to follow the strict 
rules of Sieur Jean Olive, four were burned in ^larseilles in 13 18. 
There continued to be inquisitions, though two only, one at Tou- 
louse, the other at Carcassone, originally intended to aid in stamp- 
ing out the Waldensian heresy, existed at the end of the seven- 
teenth century. The Dominicans were judges and executioners, 
though their power was less ar1)itrary than in Spain. Sieur Jean 
Olive's doctrine was pronounced heretical in the following par- 
ticulars, "that he considered the divine essence engendered ; that 
the soul of man is not of the same form as his body ; and that 
Christ received the lance wound before his death." The Hermit 
Celestin, another Franciscan, was turned over to the Inquisition 
and tortured in Trivcnto, Naples. 

St. Dominic died in 1221, St. Francis d'Assisi in 1226. Hoth, 
therefore, saw the orders which they founded flourishing and 
spreading over Europe. The creation of these two preaching or- 
ders in the thirteenth century, under strict rules of celibacy, 



114 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

poverty and obedience, may be regarded from one point of view 
as the enlistment of an army to oppose heresy and schism, which 
were then being organized under the banners of the Vaudois, the 
Albigenses, the Petrobrusians, the Henricians and a host of other 
sects whose common bond was an aversion to the tyranny of 
Rome. But from another point of view, the simultaneous birth 
and rapid growth of two such bodies bespeak the generation in 
the Church itself of a higher and a purer life, the fruit, probably, 
of the protest of many within its bosom against the abounding 
vice, the greed for wealth, and the reliance on brute force which 
were too visible in the high places of spiritual authority. The new 
monks were the upholders of the strictest orthodoxy, and of im- 
plicit obedience to the See of Rome. They preached in the ver- 
nacular, clad in coarsest garb, and their austerity and poverty 
stood out in glaring contrast to the luxury and indolence of many 
of the secular clergy, and to the laxity in discipline into which the 
earlier monastic orders had fallen. 

The second and more successful revolt against the claims of 
Rome, that under Martin Luther in the sixteenth century, was 
followed by another accession of feverish zeal in the Church itself, 
and the enrollment of other levies to fight the battle of the Church. 
The Jesuits, who sprang up to meet this fresh danger, were better 
equipped to combat the new ideas than were the mendicant friars, 
however potent the latter may have been for quelling those ill-led 
and disorganized bodies, which in the thirteenth century were 
struggling to realize half-understood aspirations toward political 
and religious liberty. 

There occurred, however, also in the sixteenth century, a re- 
vival of the older orders, especially that of St. Francis d'Assisi, 
in the sub-orders of the Capuchins and Recollets ; and the need felt 
at the same time for some provision for the elementary education 
of men and women was met by the institution of the Christian 
Brothers and of the Order of the Ursulines, both of whom ac- 
quired a firm footing in Canada. These supporters of traditional 
theology and opponents of political progress would almost seem to 
have been called into existence in obedience to some natural law, to 
correct the excesses into which unbridled thought and feeling 



FRANCISCANS AND JESUITS. 



might have carried mankind under the first exuberant impulse of 
freedom. While they may have exerted a salutary restraint on 
the headlong pace of liberated Europe, in Canada, during the 
French regime, their influence was such as effectually to check 
all movement towards freedom in thought or independence in 
action. 

The two orders which first stamped their impress on the his- 
tory of Quebec were the Franciscans, in the person of the Re- 
collets, and the Jesuits. Of all the religious orders, the fol- 
lowers of the gentle St. Francis might have been expected to be 
the most active and sympathetic apostles of the gospel to the wild 
tribes of the earth ; but the constitution under which that wonder- 
ful organizer, Ignatius Loyola, controlled the numerous highly in- 
telligent and zealous persons who flocked to his standard, made 
less impracticable demands on one's conscience and mode of 
life than that of St. Francis. The rule of obedience was 
more stringent, but that of abject poverty, collectively and indi- 
vidually, was omitted. Loyola had seen what perpetual strife 
it had produced in the Order of St. Francis, and he knew what 
tremendous power resides in the possession of wealth. He there- 
fore imposed no restriction on the tenure of property by the 
body as a corporation. We shall see to what extent the vows 
of poverty hampered the Recollets, and how ownership of vast 
estates aided the Jesuits in Canada. 

The Recollets, according to Le Clercq — but this statement must 
be accepted with qualifications — belonged to one of the strictest 
branches of the Order of Friars. The saintly founder of the or- 
der, moved by pity for the poor and indignation against the rich, 
imposed on his followers a vow of absolute poverty which forbade 
them owning property, collecting rents, or accepting alms in the 
form of coins. But even during his lifetime there were murmurs 
against the strict observance of this rule, and the first general, 
Father Helie, did not hesitate to break it. Appeals were made 
to the Popes to permit a laxer interpretation of tlie ATastcr's in- 
junction ; and not in vain, for the rules of St. Francis were 
modified by declarations of Popes Nicholas TTL. Clement V. and 
Martin V. The latter, at the Chapter General of the order in 



Il6 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

1430, permitted even "conventuals" to hold property, accept le- 
gacies and collect rents. At that date there were two groups of 
sub orders. There were the Conventuals, or those who lived in 
communities like other friars, owned their convent and valuable 
property, and allowed themselves such liberties and luxuries as 
the monks of the period indulged in, and les Freres Mineiirs de 
Vetroite observance^ who claimed to follow the stricter observance 
of the founder's rules. The latter were disciples of Paulet de 
Foligno, who had inaugurated a reform movement against , the 
laxity of morals prevailing in the large monasteries. To this group 
belonged the Recollets. They had been introduced from Italy into 
France in 1592, under the patronage of Louis de Gonzague, and 
established in the Convent of Nevers. They formed only one of 
some twenty-five bodies of schismatics in the order itself, who 
during the previous three centuries had been led by monks who 
favored a return to primitive austerity. Some of these had em- 
braced heretical tenets, and were dealt with accordingly. Others 
were zealous for trifling changes in dress, such as none but ec- 
clesiastical fanatics, with thoughts and aspirations bounded by the 
walls of their monastery, could possibly account as of any im- 
portance. But others of these sub-orders were composed of men 
earnest in their desire to live up to the standards of the founder 
and to follow his holy example. The Recollets were one of these. 
Some of their brethren had already carried the gospel into 
South America and the kingdom of Toscus, and were now willing 
to face the dangers of the Canadian forests. In Canada their influ- 
ence at first was altogether good : free from all taint of sordid 
motive, under vows of poverty, and forbidden to hold productive 
real estate, they lived together only when the fulfilment of duty 
required. They never congregated in wealthy or sumptuous mon- 
asteries, either in Canada or elsewhere. Their Quebec house 
was never noted for such expensive or costly grounds as adorned 
the College of the Jesuits, nor, as the records show, is there a 
single instance in Canada of their owning real estate yielding any 
revenue. They were the first missionaries to convert the North 
American Indian, and in those early days, when the regular clergy 
were few, and the cures were missionary priests, the Recollets 



CHAPEL ERECTED AT QUEBEC. 



117 



held each his separate "cure of souls" in the small isolated villages 
along the St. Lawrence, exposed to all the dangers of Iroquois 
attack. Our story will show how they were forced into the back- 
ground by the more astute and energetic members of the Jesuit 
order, but it would be difficult to estimate the debt Canada owes 
to them. 

But to return from this long digression. The priests, as we 
have seen, preceded the Governor from Tadousac to Quebec. Was 
it a forecast of the struggle which was to be waged in the future 
city between the Church and the State ? Within the week two of 
the Recollets followed in Champlain's company, but such was the 
haste of Father Le Caron to commence his missionary work 
among the Indians, that he did not await the Governor's depar- 
ture from Quebec for the appointed rendezvous at the Grand 
Sault, but started in advance. Champlain himself did not tarry 
long at the habitation, where there was not much to attend to. 
The trade centers were at the mouths of the g^reat rivers — the 
Saguenay, the St. Maurice and the Ottawa. But he had to regu- 
late the affairs of the post ; to set men clearing more land, to 
assist the good fathers in selecting a site for their residence and 
chapel, and afford them what aid his slender resources permitted 
towards the work of construction. These earliest religious edi- 
fices were probably built near the habitation, and not far from 
the present Church of Notre Dame de la Victoire, if not upon 
its site ; for the cul-de-sac now covered by the Market Hall was, 
previous to the erection of that building in 1865, a deep indenta- 
tion in the beach facing Champlain street ; in Champlain's day 
it was probably the landing place and harbor for small craft. The 
habitation, the Recollet House and the chapel, therefore, stood 
not far apart. The Father and all hands worked with such zeal, 
that the chapel was sufficiently completed to allow of mass being 
celebrated by Father d'Olbcau on June 25th. Le Clcrcq talks 
grandiloquently of salvos of artillery accompanying the singing 
of the Te Deum. No doul)t rejoicing was expressed by such signs 
as the few weary and homesick dwellers in the habitation could 
invent. Father Denis Jamay, the first commissionnaire, wonld 
have been the celebrant, but he had left about the loth with 



Il8 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

Champlain for the upper St. Lawrence. Father d'Olbeau had met 
them at the River des Prairies, on his way back to Quebec, to 
provide himself with church ornaments and suppHes for the win- 
ter sojourn among the Hurons, which he had determined upon 
undertaking despite Champlain's warning. Bent on his purpose 
he hurried on to Quebec, and left it again in equal haste, lest he 
should miss the Hurons returning to their bourgade on the Geor- 
gian Bay. Champlain returned more leisurely to Quebec to make 
final preparations for his trip to the Huron country, and to give 
further instructions to the little colony. 

It was the 4th of July, 161 5, before, for the second time, he left 
the habitation in his canoe with two men for his eventful trip 
to the Lakes. Pontgrave and Father Denis, whom he met on 
their way down the river, gave him the unwelcome news that the 
savages, impatient of his delay, had gone forward. He and 
his friends when they bade one another adieu, parted, as it 
proved, for nearly a twelvemonth, for it was the end of the fol- 
lowing June, when his people had given him up for lost, before 
Champlain re-emerged from the forest, after an experience in 
Indian warfare which should have taught him how unreliable 
are Indian allies ; how valiant Indian foes may be ; and what ad- 
mirable tacticians the savage warriors are when fighting in their 
native forests. Had he been willing, even then, to take counsel 
from experience, the history of New France would have been 
very different. Unfortunately, his military impulses again dom- 
inated both his mercantile interests and his political sagacity. 

Meanwhile the infant colony was preserved from sinking into 
barbarism by the presence of the Fathers. We get stray glimpses 
of what was happening from the records of the Recollets, whose 
historian. Father Sagard, occasionally condescends to tell us 
something of what other people beside the brothers of his 
order were doing. If he has not told us more, we must remember 
that, in the view of ecclesiastics, especially of the monastic orders, 
their own self-importance is very prominent, and that matters ec- 
clesiastical assume such magnitude, that they obscure all other in- 
terests, with the result that their narratives are liable to be 
imperfect and their opinions partial. Nevertheless we should fare 



A DISAPPEARANCE IN THE WILX)ERNESS. HQ 

ill without such contemporary record of the early days of the 
colony as is given by the RecoUet, Sagard, or such mention of the 
more stirring episodes of its later history, as is to be found in the 
works of Hennepin and Le Clercq. 

How many ships anchored opposite Quebec, we are not in- 
formed, nor when it was that Pontgrave, whom we last saw with 
Father Denis sending Champlain off with a godspeed on his ad- 
venturous foray to the upper Lakes with only two Frenchmen, 
dropped down to the Saguenay, took in his additional cargo of 
peltries, and sailed for France. Of this we may be sure, that 
all this time the hearts of the dwellers within the habitation 
were dying within them, as hopes of the return of their leader 
were being abandoned. Winter had set in, yet he and his ad- 
venturous companion, Etienne Brule, had not returned. Where 
were they in that limitless expanse of snow and forest, peopled 
by red savages and imaginary demons? As inactivity only ag- 
gravated anxiety, Father d'Olbeau, who had not been able to carry 
out his purpose of penetrating the Huron country, left with a 
party of Montagnais on December 2nd, intending to accompany 
them on their winter's hunt and learn their language and 
customs. The Indians he could tolerate, but not the excruciating 
smoke of their campfires. It so irritated his weak eyes that he 
was obliged to return on peril of permanently injuring 
his sight. Then on March 24 occurred the death of Michel 
Colin, whose last hours were cheered by the ministrations 
of the clergy. Of the many unfortunates who under Carticr, 
Roberval and Champlain had succumbed to scurvy and other 
diseases, he was the first to be buried with the rites of the 
Church. 

As passengers on the Spring fleet this year (1616) there came 
some real colonists — men with their wives, intent on making a 
home in the wilderness. This interesting fact we glean incidentally 
from Father Sagard, who only mentions it in connection with the 
fact that on the 15th of July Father d'Olbeau administered extreme 
unction to Margaret Vienne, and buried her witii all the ceremony 
of Holy Church. This is the first indication that the Prince of 
Conde's new company was really attempting to fulfil its function 



I20 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

as a colonizer. Another instance of the absorption of these good 
fathers in themselves and in their ecclesiastical interests is ex- 
hibited in the entire ignoring of Champlain and his important 
proceedings. We are told, for example, that Father Le Caron left 
the Huron village on the Georgian Bay, on the 20th of May, 161 6, 
with the fleet of canoes, bound for the trading mart of Three 
Rivers, where he arrived on July i and met Father d'Olbeau, who 
had come up in one of the three ships to witness the great gather- 
ing of the Indians assembled there for the annual fair. It was of 
small moment in the estimate of the scribe that Champlain, 
Lieutenant Governor of all New France, bore the missionaries 
company, and that Father d'Olbeau had come with Pontgrave 
himself, and that their friend and master was welcomed as one 
risen from the dead ; for false reports of disaster circulated by the 
Indians had greatly intensified the apprehensions of the little 
colony when Champlain failed to return in the autumn of the 
previous year. 

A week at Three Rivers sufficed for barter and trade. On 
the 8th of July, Champlain, Pontgrave and the two priests started 
together, and reached Quebec on the nth, where a service 
of thanksgiving was sung for their safe return. Champlain's 
next occupation was to entertain with due display and ceremony 
a Huron chief who had descended the river with him, and to 
send him back to his countrymen, who were waiting for him at 
the Sault St. Louis, laden with presents and properly impressed, 
as he supposed, with awe of the French. The impression, as sub- 
sequent events proved, was not as deep as might have been 
wished. These official acts performed, he planned an addition to 
the habitation, to be built of stone and mortar, for the old wooden 
house was hardly a fit abode for a Lieutenant-Governor, or for 
the accommodation of his own company, still less for the enter- 
tainment of the strangers who from time to time were his guests. 
Then he collected samples of wheat, Indian corn and such agri- 
cultural products as he could take with him to France as proof of 
the fertility of the soil. It must nevertheless have been with a 
sigh that he looked forward to leaving, for his garden was at its 
best ; the peas and beans were ripe ; the cabbage swelling, and all 



CHAMPLAIN RETURNS TO FRANCE. 



121 



nature was revelling in that exuberant life and fertility charac- 
teristic of the short Canadian summer. Yet what was there to 
detain him in Quebec? The season's work had been done. All 
the peltries offered at the Sault and at Three Rivers he had mon- 
opolized under the exclusive terms of the charter, and his agents 
had secured a share of the business transacted at the mouth of the 
Saguenay. Yet, if there was little work to be done, there were 
many knotty problems to solve, and during these few days long 
and earnest discussions affecting the future of New France were 
held in a council convened by the monks, to which they called the 
Governor and six of the most influential residents of the little ham- 
let. The conversion of the natives was of course what the ec- 
clesiastics had chiefly at heart. In devising plans for the attain- 
ment of this end, the conclusion reached was that the savages 
must be civilized before they could be Christianized, and 
that this could be effected only by intimate intercourse with civil- 
ized men. But there was only a handful of corporation officials as 
yet in this illimitable wilderness, and they were servants of a com- 
pany of fur traders whose real interests were opposed to colo- 
nization, and most of whom were heretics. Persuasion must 
therefore be used with the company's offlcers in France, to induce 
them to reverse their policy and inaugurate active colonization. 
If that could not be done, efforts must be made to break down 
the company's privilege, and have the St. Lawrence really thrown 
open to the fur trade. Population, they believed, would incvital3ly 
follow. 

It was a bold programme for four poor monks, belonging to 
an order sworn to poverty, to propound, men who could neither 
individually nor collectively participate in the prosperity which 
the success of the scheme implied. As they were prepared to 
make the attempt, however, it was decided that the commissioner. 
Father Denis Jamay, and Father Le Caron, should accompany 
the Governor to France. Both had been eye witnesses of the needs 
of the Indians, and Le Caron could relate his experience of a win- 
ter's residence among them in the very heart of the continent. 

After nine days' work and rest at the habitation, Champlain 
and his religious companions took boat and dropped down the 



122 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



river to Tadousac, which was virtually the head of sea navigation. 
When he looked back at Quebec, he beheld the trading post grown 
into a village, though it was still in truth little else than the depot 
of a fur company. Still it gave promise of what his hopes and 
imagination had for so many years been picturing to his mind. 
Beside the habitation, now to be extended so as to accommodate 
a larger staff of the company's servants, there was the temporary 
monastery of the Recollets and their little chapel, and probably 
some wooden shanties built of logs by the newly arrived colonists. 
The bare-foot monks stood on the shore, and beside them those 
still more beneficent harbingers of civilization, the wives and 
children of the colonists. They must have been very sad and full 
of foreboding, for only the evening before they had laid to rest 
poor Margaret Vienne, who probably was not the only woman 
who had that summer accompanied her husband in the com- 
pany's ship with sanguine expectations of prosperity in the 
New World. The veil is now drawn for another long winter 
over the little group of men and women composing the inhabitants 
of Quebec. The hamlet was small, it is true, yet there was more 
interest in life than heretofore. Father d'Olbeau and that charm- 
ing lay brother, Du Plessis, a scholar and a man of strong sense 
and sound mother wit, as his subsequent actions proved, were 
there. Their religious services broke delightfully into the mono- 
tony of the daily routine of snow shovelling and firewood cuttings, 
and their sermons gave many a subject for hot discussion among 
the servants of the company, not a few of whom were at that 
period still Huguenots. Father Le Clercq, indeed, tells us that the 
ridicule these cast on the mysteries of the Church retarded not a 
little the progress of missionary work among the Indians. 
Material considerations, however, began to be uppermost in men's 
thoughts, for, before the close of the winter, provisions for the in- 
creased number of mouths were running short. 

While the colonists were starving in Quebec, the good fathers 
in France were pleading, with scant encouragement, for their 
flock. The officials of the company were glad enough to listen 
to Father Joseph's account of the great interior, and of its re- 
sources in furs and of its hordes of savage hunters; but they 



OFFICIAL INDIFFERENCE. 



were probably as averse to ruining tlieir commercial prospects 
by the encouragement of farming and competition in trade as 
was the Hudson Bay Company, long afterwards, to Lord 
Selkirk's magnificent plans for peopling the Red River valley. 
Besides which, if we accept as true the accounts of the RecoUet 
historians, that Huguenot influence and Huguenot money still 
supported the company, there was cause for hesitation, as the for- 
tunes of the Reformers, as a party in the State, had just then 
reached a very critical point. In this very year of 1616, the Roman 
Catholic clergy had recovered power sufficient to secure the resti- 
tution of the Church property in Bearn. This inevitably presaged 
the breaking out of another religious war; and every far-seeing 
Huguenot (and commercial men are generally good prophets) 
must have dreaded the result, for the forces marshalling against 
Reform and its inseparable ally, Republicanism, were becoming 
every day stronger and more compact. 

If the company declined to act, the Government was cer- 
tainly not in a condition to aid the Recollets in carrying out 
their broadly conceived scheme of evangelization and colonization. 
A weak King, Louis XIII., had but recently gained his majority 
after a regency, under Marie de Medici and her venal Italian 
servants, which had done little for the glory of France. At this 
moment the boy King, only sixteen years old, was under the in- 
fluence of the clever young sycophant, de Luynes, who was plot- 
ting the banishment of the Queen Mother and the death of her 
favorite. All his sinister plans were accomplished before the year 
closed. With the King's connivance the Marechal d'Ancre, ne 
Concini, was assassinated on the Pont du Louvre. His wife, the 
Marechale Leonora Galigai, the Queen's former maid of honor, 
was beheaded on the fictitious charge of witchcraft. The Queen 
was obliged to retire to the Chateau of Blois, and her counsellor, 
the Bishop of Luzon, had perforce to follow her. He who sub- 
sequently figured in history, and in Canadian story, as Cardinal 
Richelieu had as definite, though not as correct, conceptions of a 
colonial policy as the Rccollct Friars, and not so many years 
afterward he was able to carry them out with decision. The only 
motive which prompted tliosc in power was ignoble, sordid selfish- 



124 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

ness; while, amongst the leaders of the Reformed church, the 
pristine simplicity and fervor of sincere religion had been con- 
taminated by the intermixture of political aspirations. The reli- 
gious historians of Canada attribute the reluctance to give active 
aid to the work of colonization and of the evangelization of the 
Indians to the selfishness of the company and the religious an- 
tagonism of its Huguenot members. Champlain, with fuller 
knowledge and greater candor, assigns it to the state of dis- 
organization which prevailed in the Government. The Lieutenant 
Governor of New France, Charles de Bourbon, Prince of Conde, 
v/ho had opposed the Queen Regent and her favorite, had been 
imprisoned, but Champlain believed that the Company was 
the real object of their hostihty. "The head being sick," as he 
expressed it, "the members could not enjoy good health." Mons. 
le Prince, the head of the company, though natural brother of 
Henry IV., had not been above selling the revenues of the Abbey 
of Marmontier to the deformed brother-in-law of Concini, Eti- 
enne Galigai, who was now in prison. Ambiguous negotiations 
seem to have been carried on through an intermediary as to the 
terms on which Monsieur le Marechal de Theminis should tem- 
porarily fill his place till released. Meanwhile remonstrances were 
made to the authorities against the laxity of the company in ful- 
filling its obligations in the matter of colonization. Champlain ad- 
mits that some of the members were ready to amend their short- 
comings, and that to that end his old friend de Monts, who was 
evidently still active and interested in the management, and more 
broadminded than his partners, drew up a series of articles 
obliging the company to increase the number of settlers, to supply 
means of defense, and to provide settlers with provisions for two 
years while they were learning to be self-supporting. "These ar- 
ticles," adds Champlain, "were handed to Mons. de Merillac to be 
laid before the Council. Though the project was well conceived, 
it came to naught. All went up in smoke — why and wherefore 
we know not." And when he was just about to sail a scoundrel 
called Boyer produced an act of the Parliament of Rouen, denying 
his right to act as Lieutenant of the Prince. The most antago- 
nistic influence to the company's financial prosperity, and hence 



A REAL SETTLER. 



to the colony's progress, would seem to have been, not the 
religious prejudices of the shareholders, but discord within the 
company and jealousy by competitive traders of the company's 
exclusive privileges. 

But to return to 161 6. So inopportune was the moment to in- 
augurate a great colonial movement and a generous missionary 
effort, that but little heed was paid to the appeal of Father Le 
Caron in the interest of the benighted red men. His own zeal was 
not dampened by disappointment, though his superior. Father 
Jamay, did not at once return to Canada. A substitute was, never- 
theless, forthcoming in the person of Father Paul Huet. Cham- 
plain seconded vigorously, as we have seen, the efforts of the 
Friars in this winter of 1616-1617 in favor of an active immigra- 
tion movement, perhaps not altogether without effect, for Capt. 
Morrel's good ship, which carried him and the RecoUet mission- 
aries, through storm and ice, after a long passage of thirteen 
weeks and one day, to Tadousac, took out as passengers the 
family of the Sieur Hebert, consisting of his wife, two daughters 
and a little boy. The Sieur Hebert became the most notable private 
citizen of Quebec, and, as the association feared, a troublesome 
business competitor. 

Father Sagard tells us that the Hebert household came out with 
the intention of living in Canada, and persisted in living there 
despite the opposition of the old mercantile company, which sub- 
jected the family to every hardship possible, hoping either to 
force them to leave the country in disgust, or to reduce them to 
the condition of mere servants and even slaves. *'By such cru- 
elties," the good Father adds, "are the poor prevented from en- 
joying the fruits of their labor! Oh God! how the big fish 
devour the little ones." The Sieur Hebert's daughter, Ann, made 
her name memorable by marrying Etienne Jonquet Normand. 
Though she had lost no time in selecting a husband, she con- 
siderately postponed the wedding till the ships sailed away. 
They carried Father d'Olbeau, and thus the celebration of 
the first marriage by the rites of the Church in Canada fell to 
the lot of Father Joseph. Occasions and excuses for merry- 
making were rare enougli, and doubtless it was a subject for 



126 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



public congratulation that the festivities were delayed till the 
bustle of the departing ship had subsided, and the community 
was thrown upon itself for amusement. The summer, indeed, had 
been a very wretched one. The crops, over which Champlain 
went into ecstasies the previous autumn, may have been very 
luxuriant, but certainly they were not abundant, for when Capt. 
Morrel arrived at Quebec late in June, he found its fifty or sixty 
people starving. He parted with all he could spare — a single small 
barrel of pork. His own stores had been unduly depleted through 
his extraordinarily long voyage. The increase of twenty in the 
number of inhabitants over the last enumeration must have been 
due to the families who had arrived that season, and the previous 
one. The old inhabitants had been unmarried servants of the 
trading company, and adventurers. They were driven to culti- 
vate Champlain's garden in order to raise small crops as proofs of 
the land's productiveness, but evidently they considered steady 
agricultural labor as a hardship. Henceforth there was to be 
some real farming in the valley of the St. Lawrence. 

Champlain passes over the summer almost in silence, merely 
remarking in his edition of 1632 that nothing worth mentioning 
had happened. The Indians who had promised to meet him and 
accompany him into the interior had failed to keep their promise. 
The reason of their reluctance was probably dread of punishment 
for the murder of two Frenchmen in the preceding autumn, a 
crime, however, which had not then been discovered. The two un- 
fortunates were shooting on the Beauport Flats when attacked 
and killed by two Montagnais in revenge for some real or sup- 
posed injury. The murderers sank the bodies in the river, and the 
deed remained a secret for nearly eighteen months. But the In- 
dians, naturally suspicious and superstitious, doubted the ignor- 
ance of the French, and dreaded the infliction of some mysterious 
form of revenge. The season had not been memorable for any 
adventure or exploration of Champlain's own, and he would prob- 
ably fain forget, and was loath to record, the misery which the 
little colony suffered from famine and the short rations of the 
previous spring, and the sickness, called by him mal de la terre, 
which followed the famine. 



FACTION AND RIVALRY. 



127 



Father d'Olbeau, who accompanied him to France in the au- 
tumn of 1617, to try his powers of persuasion, succeeded no 
better than Father Joseph had done in the previous winter. The 
shareholders were no more disposed to run needless risks than 
they had been the previous year. Faction and selfishness were 
rampant throughout the kingdom, and the agitation among the 
Huguenots, already active in the previous year, was now gather- 
ing force and was about to break forth into revolt. Father 
d'Olbeau, who had been nominated commissionnaire, persuaded 
Father ^Modeste Guines to return with him, in the spring of 1618. 
There were therefore in the spring of 1618 four Recollet friars 
and one lay brother in Canada. Champlain was as unsuccessful 
during the winter of 1617-1618 as his religious collaborators in 
awakening ardor in the company or in the general public. The 
pettiest possible quarrels distracted the associates. The Prince 
de Conde was still in prison. His substitute, the Sieur de 
Theminis, obtained an Order in Council requiring the com- 
pany to pay over to him the salary attached to the ofifice. 
The Prince protested. The company, not unreasonably ob- 
jecting to pay the salary twice, suggested as a compromise that 
the amount be given to the Recollets as a contribution towards 
building their seminary in Canada. Neither of the claimants, 
however, was charitably inclined. Meanwhile public opposition 
to the company had become strenuous. The estates of Brittany 
declared the trade of the St. Lawrence open to all Bretons, an act 
which the Parliament of Paris inadvertently confirmed. It re- 
quired a vigorous efifort on the part of Champlain and the Rouen 
shareholders to secure its repeal. He warned his employers that 
if they confined their operations to the fur trade alone, and made 
no effort to render the colony self-sustaining through agri- 
culture, their tenure of life, in a business sense, would inevitably 
be short. He was met by the not unreasonable argimient that 
their commercial privileges were liable to cancellation without 
notice, and that the very settlers, whom it would cost much 
to install, and still more to support till self-support became pos- 
sible, would themselves immcdiatelv become traders and meddle 
between the company and the Indians. Champlain's entreaties 



128 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



wrung promises, but promises only, from the association. Yet 
he was encouraged, when returning to Quebec in the spring of 
1618 in his old friend Pontgrave's ship, by the presence of the 
Sieur de la Mothe as fellow passenger. De la Mothe was a 
man of character. He had gone with the Jesuits to L'Acadie; 
had been carried ofif to Virginia by Argall; was sent thence a 
prisoner to England; Hberated and restored to his native land; 
and was willing again to risk shipwreck and capture in the New 
World. If a good impression could be made on such a man, surely 
his report would excite some interest in France on his return. 
Champlain could not yet bring out his young wife, but her brother, 
Eustache BouUe, a youth of eighteen years of age, bore him 
company. 

On arrival disquieting news met him at Tadousac: the 
colony had just escaped annihilation by an Indian massacre. The 
dread of discovery felt by the murderers of the two sportsmen on 
the Beauport Flats in the autumn of 1616 hung over the Indians 
like a nightmare ; and, with the savage disregard of ultimate conse- 
quences, it was decided to fall on the little colony and exterminate 
it, thus executing the executioner. There is no proof that the 
remains of the murdered men had yet been found. They were 
supposed to have been drowned by the upsetting of their canoe. 
With a view to relieving the tension eight hundred Montaignais 
Indians assembled at Three Rivers; but, while they were de- 
liberating how best to wreak vengeance on their former allies, 
one of the chiefs known as La Foriere, moved by motives which 
are not very intelligible, descended to Quebec and revealed the 
whole plot to Beauchasse, the company's factor and clerk. La 
Foriere then became mediator between the Indians and the colo- 
nists. A safe conduct was promised to the Indian chiefs, if they 
would visit the habitation. They came. The first proposal made 
by them was to commute the punishment by a present of .furs, 
according to Indian custom. This seemed to Beauchasse, from 
a business point of view, in every way a profitable mode of 
settlement. The two missionaries, on the contrary, Le Caron and 
Huet, with a better knowledge of Indian character, pointed out 
that, once the principle was admitted that the value of a French- 



AN INDIAN CONSPIRACY. 



129 



man's life was to be computed by so many beaver skins, no 
Frenchman's life would be safe. The missionaries were right, 
and their advice prevailed : a peremptory demand was made for 
the surrender of the two murderers. 

Indians to our own day can always secure the apprehension 
or the death of any guilty member of their tribe, if the common- 
weal demands it. In this case one of the murderers, after adorn- 
ing himself with all his finery, voluntarily entered the fort with his 
father and some of the chiefs. The drawbridge was raised and 
every precaution taken against an attack by the hordes of savages 
surrounding the habitation. Beauchasse, who was able by this 
time to speak in Algonquin, addressed the Indians, pointing out 
tlie benefit the friendship of the French had been to them, and 
would continue to be, and the enormity of the crime which had 
been committed. The faltering speech dragged till the patience 
of the accused was thoroughly exhausted, and he told them that 
he was an Indian and not afraid to die, and begged that 
the factor, Beauchasse, would despatch him with as little formality 
as possible. It had to be explained that, whatever might be his 
fate, such summary condemnation and execution were opposed to 
French procedure. In fact neither side was prepared to carry 
matters to extremes. The Indians might have succeeded had they 
surprised the French, but they knew full well they could not 
withstand firearms behind the entrenched and stockaded fort. 
They were starving, and were forced to solicit food from the very 
white men whose death they had 1)een plotting. On the other 
hand, the policy of the Frencli trading company had been to 
propitiate the Algonquin tri])es and the Huron branch of the Iro- 
quois. The execution of the murderers would excite the utmost 
rage and originate a war of revenge, whicli the company was ut- 
terly unable to sustain. It would simply ruin trade by closing 
its sources and clianncls. It was wisely decided, therefore, to ask 
for hostages in tlie persons of two children, and to postpone 
the trial and sentence until Champlain should arrive in the 
spring. The hostages were given. The Recollet fathers soon 
found they had their hands full in taking care of the little urchins. 
Both were quick at learning, and one was reasonably tractable, but 



130 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

as soon as opportunity offered they escaped back to their wild life. 
Thus happily ended the first Indian rising against the whites in the 
forests of North America. The peril had been great, and the 
anxiety of the fifty or sixty ''habitants," crowded for safety into 
the habitation, the only defensible building, must have been op- 
pressive. Had it not been for the wise yet firm counsel given by 
the fathers, the immediate and remote consequences would have 
been disastrous. 

Brother du Plessis, who was in charge of the mission 
at Three Rivers when the conspiracy was hatched, had de- 
scended to Quebec to aid in the pacification of his savage 
flock. When therefore Champlain arrived at the habitation on 
the 1st of June with De La Mothe, Captain Pontgrave, a clerk 
called Loquin who had come out to assist Beauchasse, and 
Fathers d'Olbeau and Guines, all the Recollet missionaries in 
Canada met him at Quebec. The welcome was doubly hearty, 
for, to add to the anxiety of the colony, the spring ships were 
late. The smaller ship had made a good passage, but she un- 
fortunately was so scantily provisioned that the crew had been 
on short rations, and she could therefore spare nothing to the 
famished inhabitants, who had given more than they could spare 
to propitiate the Indians during and subsequent to the critical 
negotiations. They had emptied the store-house, gathered the 
last of the season's mushrooms, and rooted up from the garden 
what vegetables had survived the winter. Day by day had they 
looked down the river with growing despair for the approach- 
ing ship with Pontgrave and Champlain and his stores of good 
things. At last it hove in sight and the situation was materially 
relieved. 

After a short stay at the habitation, where Champlain was 
greatly delighted with the fertility of the soil and the luxuriance 
of the vegetation, but deplored the indolence and indifference of 
the settlers, who, amid potential plenty, would starve rather than 
work, he hurried to Three Rivers to decide the fate of the mur- 
derers. There was the usual ceremonious council. His assistance 
was asked by the Indians against their enemies. He charged them 
with breach of promise in not meeting him the year before; 



COUREURS DE BOIS. 



declined to accompany them at once owing to the heinous crime 
committed by members of their tribe; but promised, on condi- 
tion of their good behavior and of their trade, to join them the 
following year. Finally, seizing a sword, he flung it into the St. 
Lawrence, and as its waters closed over the weapon and concealed 
it for ever and for aye, assured them that so would all ill-will be- 
tween the French and their allies be obliterated and forgotten — 
even to the crime which might so justly have been punished by 
death. With this fine dramatic flourish he liberated the prisoners. 
The Indians were too polite to laugh. 

With the Indians there came to the fair at Three Rivers the 
progenitors of a class of men who did more than French 
soldiers or statesmen to extend French influence over the 
vast West and Northwest — the coureurs de hois. Etienne Brule 
had, more than three years before, been sent by Champlain with 
twelve Indians from Lake Simcoe, when he was on his unsuccess- 
ful campaign against the Iroquois, to urge his allies to hasten their 
arrival at the trysting place. After waiting beyond the appointed 
time, Champlain left, and, from that day forward, nothing had 
been heard of Brule. He could have told a thrilling tale of adven- 
ture among the Iroquois and the Hurons ; yet he was in no haste 
to return to civilization. He had learned the Huron language, he 
had acquired the Indian habits, and, though Champlain does not 
expressly say so, had married an Indian wife. He would not stay 
among his countrymen, but returned with the Hurons as an adopt- 
ed member of the tribe to further explore the Western country. 
From Champlain's account, he seems to have forestalled La Salle 
in the discovery of the Mississippi. Parkman supposes it to have 
been the Susquehanna, as Brule spent one winter in visiting 
the nations adjacent to the Huron territory, and in traveling 
along a river which flows into the sea near Florida. He de- 
scended the river as far as the sea and speaks of the mild climate 
of the country and the wild animals ranging over it in great 
numbers. He ultimately met an Indian's fate in a violent 
death in 1632 at the hands of a Huron. Tlic readiness with 
which the French adapted tlicmselves to Indian ways of life is 
a trait not exhibited by any other of the European nations which 



132 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

have colonized the Western hemisphere. There seemed to be 
elements peculiarly congenial to the French taste in the wild, 
untrammelled habits of the forest hunters of North America. 
The Frenchman's love of adventure was gratified, his native 
activity of mind and body found full scope for exercise, and in 
the woods he was far away from the Priest and the Intendant. 
Though excommunications were fulminated against the coureurs 
de hois by the Church, and edicts and ordinances and sentences 
of punishment by death itself, in case of disobedience, passed by 
the Council, these progenitors of the half-breed of the' West 
increased and multiplied. In trying to repress them the 
French Government acted inconsistently with its avowed prin- 
ciples; for the conviction that the higher civilization can as- 
similate the lower was then, and still is, a fundamental principle 
of French colonial policy. It has never been propounded, or be- 
lieved to be practicable, by any experienced English colonists. 

The danger of an Indian outbreak having been averted, and a 
profitable trade in furs secured as the result of his clemency, 
Champlain returned to Quebec, but tarried only while Pontgrave 
made a trip to Tadousac for provisions for the winter sup- 
port of the little community. Then he. Father Paul and 
Brother Pacifique set sail for France. They left Tadousac on 
the 30th of July, and landed at Honfleur on the 28th of August, 
1618. Monsieur de la Mothe remained in Canada, but no men- 
tion is made of other accessions to the population, except the 
clerk, Loquin. One death only is recorded, despite the failure of 
stores in the early summer. The victim was a Scotch Presby- 
terian, who wanted to be allowed to die in peace, but the good 
fathers, on his refusing their ministrations, consigned the poor 
soul to the hands of Satan, "who hurried him of¥ to the very low- 
est depths of hell." Ere long there were to be no more heretics in 
this holy land, and therefore no further need for such painful ex- 
tremities of spiritual jurisdiction. In this incident we meet for 
the first time the gentle influence of woman's charity in New 
France. It was Madame Ilebert who tended the unfortunate 
Scotchman, so far from home and from congenial surroundings, 



A MONASTIC ANXALTST. 



and it was she whose soHcitude about his soul was so urgent that 
she called in the clergy to effect his conversion. 

These glimpses of life under the cliff are given by the Recollet 
Father Sagard. He was not himself sent to Canada — to his 
great regret — until 1623; but such matters were still fresh in 
men's memory, as well as accessible in the records of the 
order. While he is garrulous about trifles, he is silent, and 
significantly silent — one cannot but suppose — about more mo- 
mentous events, especially when Champlain himself is concerned. 
While Champlain makes constant reference to the Friars, to 
their comings and goings and doings, he is treated by them 
with contemptuous silence. The inference is that he disapproved 
of their conduct as being injurious to the interests of the com- 
pany and of New France, or else that his religious opinions were 
not rigid enough to please them. They were not combative like 
their successors and future rivals, the Jesuits. If they disapprov- 
ed, they simply expressed dissent by silence. But in this antagon- 
ism and jealousy, overt or latent, we detect already, what was 
destined to be the bane of French colonial rule in America, ec- 
clesiastical influence at war with the civil power, 



CHAPTER VII. 



Champlain as Governor Under the Due de Montmorency 
and the Creation of the De Caen Trading 
Company ♦ \ 619-1 624. 

We now enter on another phase of the colony's existence and 
the company's history. Champlain, as representative of both, is 
distracted in trying to adjust his conduct as manager of a mer- 
cantile association with his sense of duty as Governor of the 
colony. And unfortunately at this juncture the course of events 
cannot be as distinctly traced as heretofore, inasmuch as there is 
internal evidence that the 1632 edition of Champlain's work was 
revised and altered by some other hand than his own. The ''Voy- 
age jusque a la fin de I'Annee, 1618," published in 1619, is as it 
came from Champlain's pen, and therefore doubtful points in the 
edition of 1632 up to that date can be verified by reference to the 
narrative published in 1619. For events subsequent to 1619 we 
are dependent on the edition of 1632. As I'Abbe Laverdiere points 
out in his preface to the edition of 1632, the discrepancies in the 
two narratives so often and so pointedly indicate a hand hostile to 
the Recollet Fathers, that the inference is that the editor was a 
Jesuit. Father Sagard's "Histoire de Canada" appeared in 1634 — 
two years after Champlain's edition of 1632, and one year before 
Champlain's death. Irritation at the slight thrown on his Order 
in Champlain's last narrative may account for his obscuration 
of Champlain in his own history. As Champlain was in France, 
or a captive in England, from 1629 to 1632, when he re- 
turned to Quebec, it is difficult to understand why the edition 
of 1632 should not have been put through the press by him- 
self ; and yet there are in it palpable errors which it is in- 
credible that he should have committed. For instance, the edition 
of 1619 tells us that in the autumn of 1616, just before sailing, 
he planned an extension of the habitation, and "had it 



DIVERGENT VIEWS. 



all built of lime and sand, having found material of excellent 
quality near the habitation, which is a great convenience in build- 
ing to those who are willing to take the trouble of carrying and 
using it." The passage is omitted entirely in the edition of 1632 ; 
but this edition interpolates in the narrative of what occurred 
in 16 18 a document, sworn to before a notary, which enumerates 
the articles the association binds itself to send to the colony. 
Among these are "ten hogsheads of lime, necessary, inasmuch 
as none had up to that time been found in the country, though 
it has since been discovered." It is simply incredible that Cham- 
plain could have so contradicted himself in a matter of com- 
mon everyday knowledge. We are thus driven to conclude that 
the edition of 1632, while composed in the main from materials 
he supplied, was not entirely written by him, was not corrected 
by himself, and that it cannot therefore be wholly depended on as 
expressing his opinions. While this is probably true, it may also 
have happened that his sentiments, under Jesuit influences, may 
have actually changed towards the Recollets, and that the omis- 
sions in the edition of 1632, regarding the work of the RecoUet 
Fathers, were really due to himself. Champlain was growing old : 
he was born in 1567. If such a change of sentiment on Cham- 
plain's part actually occurred, Sagard has taken revenge by sup- 
pressing as far as possible all mention of him in his "Histoire." 

No sooner had Champlain set foot in France in August, 1618, 
than he recommenced his advocacy of a more vigorous colonial 
policy. He claims to have wrung from the association a promise 
sworn to before a notary in December, 1619 (evidently a mis- 
take for 161S, as the document was collated on January 11, 
1619) to send out eighty colonists, a consignment of tools and 
implements, arms and ammunition, kitchen utensils and table 
service for the Governor, as well as live stock and feed. 
The promise was never carried out. There was faction in the 
company; faction in the commercial centers; and faction in the 
State. In the company's councils two alternatives seem to have 
been the subject of discussion and discord. Some thought it best 
that the old method should be pursued of forbidding any but the 
company's agents trafficking with tlie Indians for furs. Others 



136 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

proposed that settlement should be encouraged, and a free trade 
in Canada permitted between the settlers and the Indians — 
the furs obtained by the settlers to be, however, stored in the 
company's magazine, shipped by the company to France, and 
paid for in bills of exchange. The first plan would have been 
most advantageous to the company. The long experience of the 
Hudson Bay Company and the Northwest Fur Company has 
since demonstrated the fact, and their own short and checkered 
career must have afforded arguments to the supporters of this 
view. Such a policy, however, is only practicable in a desolate re- 
gioUj from which immigration can be excluded. This Champlain 
knew not to be the case in Canada. Beside which, the English had 
for more than a decade been firmly established in Virginia; the 
Dutch had obtained a footing on the Hudson ; and more than one 
company of Englishmen had attempted to found a colony on the 
New England coast. The English claimed Newfoundland and 
challenged the French right to Acadie. Competition would there- 
fore be acute along their whole border. An absolute monopoly of 
the fur trade was possible only by dint of complete territorial iso- 
lation. Champlain saw this to be impossible, and he consequently 
favored a modification of the company's policy, which would 
give it a control merely of the commercial operations of the com- 
munity, and would encourage the inhabitants themselves to push 
the trade with the Indians into remote sections of the continent. 
Were that policy adopted, commerce would grow with the in- 
crease of population, to the great benefit of the company. So 
argued Champlain ; but the company hesitated to adopt so 
radical a measure, dreading that, if the freedom of trade with the 
Indians were conceded, 'equal freedom of trade between the Colony 
and France would be demanded, and could hardly be denied. The 
liberality of Champlain's opinions and plans evidently created 
suspicion in the minds of the associates regarding his entire and 
undivided devotion to their interests. Accordingly, when he was on 
the point of sailing for Quebec with his wife and household in the 
spring of 1619, he was informed that the company had handed 
over the management of their commercial affairs and of their 
property in Quebec to Pontgrave, so that he, Champlain, might be 



CHAMPLAIX AXD THE COMPANY. 



free to prosecute his explorations in the interior without let or 
hindrance from the demands of business. 

Pontgrave sailed, but without Champlain, who declined to 
accept a divided authority. He claimed that, under the King's 
commission, he was lieutenant of Monsieur le Prince, and that 
his authority as Governor extended over the whole population and 
over all property in New France, except the actual merchandise of 
the company in the company's store in Quebec, whose factor 
he was in the habit of appointing as his lieutenant during his ab- 
sence. Pontgrave had been, and still was, his closest friend ; 
he was old enough to be his father ; and it was through no 
feeling of jealousy towards him that he refused to recognize 
this joint authority, but simply because his duty to the State was 
paramount. While he had been willing to work for the company 
and to receive compensation for it, he was Governor as Lieutenant 
for Charles de Bourbon, and Lieutenant General of the King in 
New France, and he could not, therefore, permit within his do- 
minion the establishment and exercise of any independent power. 
Already the course of events in Virginia was affording an illus- 
tration of the direction likely to be taken by colonial enterprise 
when freed from imperial control ; it may have been this that 
suggested Champlain's reflection that the motive of the com- 
pany's officers was ''to create an independent government, 
and to found a republic after their own fashion, using the 
King's commission merely as a cloak under which to carry out 
their sinister designs." The suppression of the Huguenot cause, 
soon after this date, as a controlling influence in French politics, 
was rendered easier by the example which England afforded of 
the tendency of freedom of thought and unlicensed debate. Of the 
two the French preferred the a1)solutism of Richelieu and later of 
Louis XIV., to the excesses of Republicanism. 

The presumption of the English North American colonists was 
so utterly obnoxious to Richelieu, Mazarin and Colbert, and the 
rights asserted by the colonial assemblies and their encroachment 
on imperial control so opposed to the theory of government pro- 
pounded by these great statesmen and practised by their masters, 
that, in framing a colonial policy for France, they cautiously elim- 



138 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

inatecl every concession which could be used as a pretext for even 
the most elementary exercise of popular government by the col- 
onists. Richelieu was not yet handling the reins of State, but 
the sentiment which he subsequently formulated into a principle, 
as mentioned by Champlain in his edition of 1632, already con- 
trolled the Court ; and not without good reason, for republicanism 
and absolute monarchy were rapidly becoming belligerent issues 
across the channel. He expressed, as representative of the Crown, 
what had become the determinate policy of French sovereigns, for 
the States General had been dismissed in 1614, not to reassemble 
till the fatal meeting in 1789. The theory and practice of 
French colonial rule on the North American continent were thus 
in pronounced antithesis to those adopted by England ; the rigidity 
of the French policy being doubtless accentuated by the encour- 
agement which the English policy was seen to give to Democracy. 

Champlain, instead of sailing, went with his family to Rouen 
to lodge his protest in person before the associates, and to frus- 
trate the machinations of his old enemy, Boyer, whom he charged 
with fomenting all the trouble, though it is hardly necessary to in- 
voke private spite to account for the attitude of the opponents of 
the company. The letter from Louis XIII. to the association, by 
which Champlain supported his claim, sufficiently explains the 
embarrassing position in which the company found itself, and the 
plan by which it sought to solve the dilemma. The letter com- 
plains of the laxity of the company in establishing families of 
work people and artisans at Quebec, and at other points in New 
France. It insists on the company's aiding Champlain in carrying 
out the King's orders to plant colonists, whose multiplication 
would inure to the royal advantage and the public good. At the 
same time the letter expresses the wish that all this be done with- 
out inconvenience to the company's servants or injury to the com- 
pany's trade in furs. It implies that this costly and unproductive 
colonization is to be carried out by the company at its own ex- 
pense ; for it was the policy of France, from the time of Francis 
I., to relieve the treasury of outlay for colonial expansion by in- 
ducing individuals or companies to undertake the burden in return 
for trade concessions and privileges. While the French Govern- 



A CHANGE OF VICEROY. 



ment assumed little, if any, pecuniary risk, it nevertheless ham- 
pered its colonies by a rigorous paternal regime, allowing no 
initiative or real freedom of action to those who took part in the 
colonial enterprise, whether as incorporators in France, or as ser- 
vants and colonists abroad. 

As the bureaucratic system of Old France was to be transferred 
with all its blighting effects to New France, Champlain deter- 
mined, at least, to protect his own position, appealed from the 
company to the Council, followed the Court to Tours, and secured 
an edict confirming him in the command of Quebec, and of the 
other places in New France, and prohibiting the association, under 
pains and penalties, from hindering him in the performance of his 
functions. 

The Prince of Conde's Viceroyalty had been rather a sinecure, 
for he had been in prison during most of his term of office. 
He celebrated his release by giving one-half of a year's salary to 
the Recollets as a contribution to their seminary at Quebec. As 
his substitute, the Marechal de Themines, seems to have interested 
himself in nothing but the salary attached to the office, Champlain 
must have desired a more active, if not more influential, viceroy. 
One was found in the person of Monsieur de Montmorency, Ad- 
miral of France. The Prince de Conde was willing to resign for a 
consideration, and the Admiral was willing to pay that considera- 
tion of 11,000 ecus. The bargain was made through Sieur Vignier 
as intermediary, and the appointment was confirmed by the King. 
At the same time Monsieur Dolu, Grand Audiencier (Chief 
Usher) of France, was appointed Intcndant, his functions being 
to conduct the civil government of the colony and to watch the 
Governor, there were in the colony fifty or sixty people. They 
had to rule them a King as supreme, his Vicerov in France, a 
Governor as Lieutenant of the \^iceroy in Canada, and an In- 
tendant to assist or thwart the Governor as the case might be. 
To control their fate, minister to their religious wants, and do 
missionary work among the Indians, the company supported five 
friars, though their charter required them to maintain six. Fif- 
teen to twenty, therefore, of the population, under pay of the com- 
pany, occupied high civil or ecclesiastical positions. 



I40 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

Champlain had now been a year and a half in France, perhaps 
not altogether unwillingly, as his young wife, to whom he had 
been betrothed while she was yet a girl, had now attained full 
womanhood, and this was the first time in his roving life he 
had enjoyed a taste of domestic tranquility. Pontgrave, who had 
sailed against his protest, as his colleague, had spent the winter in 
Canada, and Champlain was doubtless anxious to join him for 
more reasons than one. To show his sincerity as a promoter of 
colonization, he determined to take his wife with him. When he 
was on the point of sailing from Honfleur in the spring of 1620, 
the company made a final efifort to cripple his authority, but an 
appeal to the Viceroy and Intendant brought a categorical 
answer, confirming him in full authority over all property, ex- 
cept the merchandise belonging to the company, and over all the 
persons and the actions of the company's factors and clerks, in 
their capacity as the company's servants. The King promised 
the armament for a fort which Champlain was instructed to erect 
at Quebec, presumably at the company's expense, and he was 
authorized, if the company proved recalcitrant, to seize their 
fleet, though with what force of men he was to make the seizure 
is not clear. To encourage him in his task of establishing the 
royal authority and spreading the Catholic religion, the King 
wrote him a letter on the 7th of May, 1620, over his own sign 
manual. Sailing with his family a few days later, he arrived, 
after a tedious voyage of two months, at Tadousac, which was 
still the principal port of New France, where both passengers and 
freight were generally transferred for the upper St. Lawrence. 
His brother-in-law, Boulle, had preceded him in a vessel com- 
manded by Sieur Deschesnes, and as he was not aware of his 
sister's intention to accompany her husband, the meeting was 
doubly joyful. The news he told Champlain was that they had 
surprised and nearly captured two ships of La Rochelle, which 
were trading illicitly with the Indians near Bic, and committing 
the indiscretion of exchanging firearms for furs. The provoking 
intruders had, however, proved themselves the better sailors and 
made their escape. As the trade of the St. Lawrence below Que- 
bec had been decreed free, the irregularity of these Huguenot 



A NEGLECTED COLONY. 



141 



skippers from La Rochelle probably consisted in their sailing 
without a license or some form of register, a latitude in trade 
which there is reason to believe may have been curtailed, as by the 
Due de Ventadour's commission in 1625 to Champlain, he was au- 
thorized to seize all vessels trading to the west of Gaspe. Again 
and again the iniquity of these enterprising but heretical intruders 
moves both Champlain and the Recollet Fathers to wrath. 

After his two years absence from Quebec, Champlain found 
the habitation in a woefully ruinous state. The rain poured 
through the roof, the wind whistled between cracks in the walls, 
the store-room was about to fall in, and one of the wings had 
collapsed bodily ; and yet this was to be the abode of the delicately 
nurtured wife, whom he had brought to the country as an induce- 
ment to others to follow. Madame Champlain's brother, BouUe, 
had with Pontgrave spent the previous winter there ; but the ex- 
cuse for the neglected condition of the place was that the few m.e- 
chanics had been withdrawn for the purpose of erecting the mon- 
astery, which the Recollet Fathers were building on the banks of 
the St. Charles, half a league away, and in putting up a house for 
Guillaume Hebert on the top of the cliff. However, though the 
roof of the chateau was leaky, he was the Lieutenant of the 
Viceroy of all New France, and therefore on the day after his 
arrival he caused his commission, as Lieutenant of the new Vice- 
roy, to be publicly read by Commissionaire Guers, with the accom- 
paniment of cannon, after the Recollet Fathers had said mass in 
the little chapel. The whole population of fifty shouted "Vii'c le 
roi!" whereupon Champlain took possession of the habitation and 
the country in the name of the Viceroy, the Due de Montmorency. 

Thus Canada passed from the status of a mere trading domain 
of a commercial company, like the Hudson P>ay Company, into a 
royal colony. During the two years of his absence it would 
seem that no increase of population had taken place. On the 
contrary, death had been busy with the little colony. Good 
Father du PIcssis, to whom the little settlement owed its deliv- 
erance from the Indian massacre in the spring of 16 18, died in 
August of the following year. He had recently returned from 
France, whither he had gone with Father Huet on the boot- 



142 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

less mission of urging the company to send out settlers. And 
poor Anne Hebert, who had been married to Etienne Jon- 
quest with much festivity, so recently as the autumn of 
161 7, had died in childbed. It was a cheerless home-coming to 
Champlain to be greeted by death, decay, indolence and indiffer- 
ence. The only energetic denizens of the little hamlet were the 
Recollets ; yet he can hardly disguise his irritation at the work- 
men having been withdrawn from the public habitation to help 
in building the monastery for the friars. They had planted it 
far away, so that in solitude and silence they might be undisturbed 
in their devotions. The Fathers had acquired a site about half 
a league from the habitation the summer previously, near the 
Little River, as it was then and is still called, and not far distant 
from the creek where Cartier had moored his fleet in the autumn 
of 1535- 

The land on which the friars built was a tract of pasture 
which that enterprising colonist Hebert had cleared on the right 
bank of the St. Charles about two miles from its mouth. This the 
Fathers had acquired from him in exchange for a clearance they 
had made near the habitation in the summer of 1619. Here they 
commenced collecting building material for their convent, a work 
in which they were heartily aided by the large-minded Pontgrave, 
notwithstanding that he was a Huguenot ; but the foundation stone 
was not laid until the 3rd of the following June, when the cere- 
mony was performed by Father d'Olbeau, as substitute for Father 
Jamay, the Commissaire, who had not yet returned from France. 
Thus, when Champlain came out with his family in July, building 
operations were active, and more public interest was taken in the 
progress of the convent than in the prospects of the colony. The 
work on the mission house must have been pressed, inasmuch as 
on August 15 Father Jamay gives a detailed account of the build- 
ing to his patron, the Grand Vicaire de Pontoise. It was a two- 
storied wooden building, 34 feet by 22 feet, with a capacious 
cellar. The lower story was divided by a stone partition wall 
into two rooms, one of which served temporarily as a chapel, 
the other as a kitchen and refectory. The upper story was di- 
vided into one large and four small rooms with provisions for 



THE RECOLLET MONASTERY. 



isolation in a sixth. There were stone towers for defense at three 
corners, and a demilune of heavy timbers before the entrance. 
The Little River flowed in front of the convent, and two streams 
whose sources were close together to the north, and which flowed 
to the east and west of the building, were by deepening made to 
serve as a fosse ; and thus this primitive abode of the ministers of 
Jesus repeated, to the great delight of the Grand Vicaire, all the 
features of a medieval monastery — a retreat for devotion, a semi- 
nary, a hospital, and a stronghold. It was, however, unlike most 
of the old world monasteries in their decadence, for the Fathers 
were determined to set their converts an example as industrious 
agriculturists. The building was then, as the General Hospital was 
till recently, in a swamp. This they endeavored to drain by 
ditches so laid out that they would also serve as a means of 
defense. By the autumn of this first season they had of live 
stock a mule, a female ass, a number of pigs, one pair of geese, 
fourteen fowls, and eight ducks. They hoped within two years 
to be able to raise enough grain and pigs to support twelve per- 
sons on a diet of bread, beer, and salt pork. These would be sup- 
plemented by fish from the river and moose meat, which the In- 
dians during the winter would exchange for a trifle of bread. 

The Recollets transferred this property to Bishop Saint Vallier, 
in 1690, for the General Hospital. That institution, therefore, 
marks definitely for us to-day the site of this monastery, which 
absorbed so much of the energies of the good Fathers in 1620 and 
1 62 1. The building was intended and planned for the double pur- 
pose of enabling the friars to live in conformity with the rules of 
their order, and of serving as a seminary for the education of 
Indian boys. Its distance from the settlement had certain ad- 
vantages ; but as the journey to and fro in winter was somewhat 
trying, some of the friars continued to live in the Parish House 
attached to the little church near the habitation : for the Fathers 
then and subsequently were empowered by the brief of Gnido Bcn- 
tivolio. Nuncio of Paul V., to perform most of the functions of the 
secular clergy- in New France — to preach, baptize, hear confessions 
and to administer the sacraments of the Fucharist. ninrriauc^ and 
extreme unction. They changed the name of the Little River from 



144 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



that of St. Croix, given it by Cartier, to St. Charles, in honor of 
their hberal patron, Charles de Bones, Grand Vicaire de Pontoise. 
He and the Sieur Houel were their most influential financial sup- 
porters, and contributions from other sources were not lacking; 
but the Fathers never ceased to complain of the refusal of ade- 
quate support from the associates of the company, who evidently 
considered that the provision they were compelled to make for 
the support of six friars was a sufficient contribution. The 
Grand Vicaire, writing in 1621, promises from the Sieur Houel 
200 ecus annually towards the support of six Indian children in 
the seminary of St. Charles, and agrees to supplement that with 
a like sum from his own purse, and hopes to send them in the 
following year 1,000 ecus from other contributors. The Sieur 
Houel also offers to ship them 1,200 pounds of provisions. By 
that time the Church, the A/[onastery and the Seminary of Notre 
Dame des Anges had been built, and high hopes were enter- 
tained of the future utility of the establishment — hopes which un- 
fortunately were very slow of realization. It was a time when 
there was much enthusiasm among thinking men, as well as 
among the pious, bred of the hope that European civilization 
Vv^ould transform the wild tribes of the earth into refined speci- 
mens of humanity. Montaigne, in his essay entitled ''Des Coches," 
reflects on what Spanish greed had done in comparison with 
what might have been effected by a different treatment of the 
aborigines ; if, that is to say, Europeans had set them an example of 
every virtue instead of initiating them into every vice. The at- 
tempt was honestly made by the ecclesiastics of New France, 
and, had Montaigne lived to see the results, he would have ad- 
mitted that there was some error in the premises from which he 
drew his hopeful conclusion. The monks were doubtless doing a 
good work, and doing it from motives that put to shame the sordid 
aims of the mercantile company. But Champlain may be ex- 
cused if he fretted over the abstraction of so much labor and 
energy from the realization of his owns plans, which, as Lieute- 
nant of the Viceroy and no longer a mere agent of the company, 
his heart was now bent on carrying out. 

Heretofore he had been the most zealous of traders, combining 



CHATEAU ST. LOUTS. 



in some mysterious way the function of Governor of the colony 
and agent of the fur company ; but his recent experience in France 
had satisfied him of the incompatabihty of such dual responsi- 
bilities, and henceforth he stands forth in the simple character of 
Governor. In this capacity we have seen him on his arrival pro- 
claimed Lieutenant of the Viceroy, with such formality and 
pageantry as his slender command of accessories would permit. 
This done he immediately despatched Guers, who had acted as 
clerk and herald in the ceremony of his inauguration, to Three 
Rivers, to watch and report the proceedings of Pontgrave and the 
company's clerk, while he busied himself in repairing the habita- 
tion and in planning a fort, which he had from the first foreseen 
to be essential to the security of the settlement, but the 
building of which the company from short-sightedness or stingi- 
ness had persistently opposed. The situation he selected was 
on the very brow of the cliff overlooking the habitation, and 
yet commanding the river where its channel was the narrowest.* 
It was so well chosen that it was retained as the site of the palace 
of the Governors of New France and of Great Britain until 
destroyed by fire in 1834. It was therefore the scene of many 
of the most dramatic incidents in the history of America. 
Durham Terrace replaced the old Chateau, and the eastern end 
of DuflPerin Terrace now occupies part of the same space. Cham- 
plain's first fort, built on the site of the future Chateau, was of 
wood, and being designed on a plan commensurate with his very 
modest means, was adequate only as a defence against savage foes; 
though even then he had apprehensions of an attack from the ra- 
pacious English. And so the summer passed, the friars building 
their convent, the Governor his castle. The two buildings rep- 
resented powers which should have worked harmoniously for the 
public good, but which were preparing instead for a conflict which 
was to last as long as French rule itself. 

Pontgrave went to France with his cargo of peltries, accom- 
panied by Roumier, his under clerk, leaving Jean Caumont dit Ic 

* Some authorities are inclined to place the first fort where the Grand 
Battery now commences, hut there is no evidence that Montmagny's reconstructed 
fort was on a different site from that chosen by Champlain. 



146 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

Mons in charge of the store. He did not, however, sail from 
Tadousac until he had forwarded Champlain all the available 
stores for the support of the little colony of sixty souls, of whom 
ten were still employed at the monastery at the expense of the 
Friars. The Church, the State and a trading company were 
thus the only active, independent elements. Of individual enter- 
prise or personal initiative we hear nothing. 

The following year, 162 1, was not marked by any event of 
great permanent interest, but it was a year of intense excitement 
at Quebec, owing to the fact that Champlain, as Governor, came 
into collision with the old company, which found it difficult to ac- 
cept its reduced position as a mere trader, destitute of political 
authority. To complicate the position, the Due de Montmorency 
gave a charter to another company, composed of members of 
purer faith, and it was hoped of greater colonizing zeal. As might 
have been expected, the old company and the new did not har- 
monize at first. The season's operations opened by the departure 
of le Mons, the company's clerk, from Quebec for Tadousac with a 
cargo of merchandise intended for barter with the Indians. On 
his way, however, he met Captains Dumay and Guers, armed with 
commissions from the Viceroy, and supported by five sailors, three 
soldiers and a boy. Having been warned by them of the creation 
of the new company and the cancellation of the rights of the old, 
he could do nothing but turn back. 

Dumay and Guers were the bearers of quite a batch of letters 
to the Governor. The King himself complimented his servant, 
and promised arms and munitions. Another was from Monsieur 
de Puisieux, Secretaire des commandements du Roi, informing 
him that it was at the solicitation of Monsieur Dolu, the Intendant, 
that the arms were being furnished. Then Monsieur the Due 
himself wrote that, for various reasons, the old company, com- 
posed of merchants of Rouen and St. Malo, had been dissolved, 
and he had solicited the Sieur de Caen and his nephew and cer- 
tain associates to aid Champlain in sustaining the authority of the 
King, and that Monsieur Dolu would give him particulars as 
to the arrangement made with the new company. He assured 
him, however, that his personal position would not be damaged. 



RIVAL COMPANIES. 



Monsieur Dolu's letter was much more emphatic. It instructed 
him to seize the merchandise and property of the old company, 
as a penalty for their failure to carry out the colonization condi- 
tions of their contract, and to aid the de Caens, who, though not of 
the true faith, would, it was hoped, be induced to repent of the 
error of their ways and become Catholics. He received still other 
letters from Villemenon, Intendant to the x\dmiralty, assuring him 
that the de Caens would sail with two good ships fully armed 
and provisioned. Had the de Caens themselves been the bearers 
of the letters, and had they come prepared to back their privileges 
and pretensions by ample force of arms, Champlain's course 
would have been clear and easy. Or had Dumay and Guers 
prudently delivered their letters and message to him alone, and 
kept silence as to the success of the agitation against the old 
company in France, Champlain would have allowed its agents to 
continue their operations until he was strong enough to carry 
out his categorical instructions. But Dumay and Guers had 
boasted of the commission even before reaching Quebec ; and 
after they arrived there, the employees of the new company twitted 
those of the old, not only with loss of service, but with probable 
forfeiture of arrears of pay, till there arose a little revolution in the 
hamlet. Champlain was powerless. He therefore not only as- 
sured the officials of the old company of protection from personal 
loss, but granted them permission to continue trading operations 
until the express commands of the King were communicated by de 
Caen himself. On the other hand, Dumay and Guers had brought 
out a cargo of merchandise for exchange, and this they insisted on 
their right to barter for furs. To have granted their request 
would have brought matters to a crisis. In refusing it Champlain 
pointed out to them that, if the decision of the question of ex- 
clusive trade should be decided in Council in their favor, then the 
skins forfeited by the old company would be ample compensation 
for any loss the new company might sustain by mere postpone- 
ment of operations. Having thus compromised with the opposing 
factions, he sent Dumay down the river to meet de Caen and ad- 
vise him of what had happened. But, just as le Mons had 
a fortnight before deemed it prudent to retire when on his 



148 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

way to Tadousac, he met Dumay and Guers with their 
boatload of armed men, so now Dumay hastened back to warn 
Champlain that his old comrade and friend, Pontgrave, was 
close at hand in the "Salemande," a vessel of 150 tons, with a 
crew of sixty-five men, probably bent on sustaining the rights 
of the old company. To oppose Pontgrave Champlain could muster 
only a crew of eighteen, most of whom were at Tadousac and 
not at Quebec, and a possible contingent of some twelve addi- 
tional men. These were all he could rely upon, as the rest of the 
colony was dependent on the old company. It was clearly there- 
fore more politic to negotiate than to fight. But in order to. be 
in a position — as Champlain expressed it — to parler a cheval, he 
manned the unfinished fort on the crest of the hill, with Dumay, 
his brother-in-law, eight of his own men, and a force borrowed 
from the Recollet Fathers, while he induced four of the company's 
men to carry provisions and ammunition up the steep hill to 
provision his fortress. He himself with his wife awaited develop- 
ments in the old habitation on the beach, guarded by three of 
Dumay's crew, four servants of the Recollets, Guers, his clerk, 
and some of the inhabitants. 

On the 7th, a schooner hove in sight. Father George, with 
M, Guers, met the new arrivals on the beach. They proved to 
be three clerks of the old company, so peacefully disposed that 
Champlain need not have called his men to arms and raised the 
drawbridge. They gave the latest news from France, namely, 
that the old company had protested against the cancellation of its 
rights before the term of its concession had expired ; that their 
plea was still under deliberation by the Council, but that the 
Admiralty had refused to give their ships clearance. They were 
not a little surprised at the hostile attitude of Champlain, as 
they themselves were not only peacefully disposed, but prepared 
to supply the colony with provisions, of which it stood in direst 
need. Under such circumstances, the natural course was to wel- 
come them. They demanded that the habitation and the old com- 
pany's stock of beaver skins be turned over to them, but these 
Champlain emphatically declined to surrender. He allowed them, 
however, to proceed to Three Rivers, to the yearly fair, with 



THE DIFFICULTIES OF THE GOVERNOR. 



149 



their merchandise. When they were fairly gone, Champlain again 
sent Dumay down the river to apprise de Caen, who by his 
tarrying had left him in such an embarrassing position, 
of what had occurred. In a few days — on the 13th of June — 
instead of de Caen, Champlain's old comrade, Pontgrave, ap- 
peared, not with his war ship and numerous crew, but in a small 
vessel loaded with merchandise for Indian traffic. Champlain 
having expressed his surprise that, knowing the hostility against 
the company, and being aware of de Caen's mission, he had left 
his ship at Tadousac, Pontgrave assured him that, if the decision 
of Council were against his company, and de Caen came out with 
indisputable authority to confiscate their property, he would not 
resist. He assented to Champlain's course in retaining the furs 
and the warehouse as a pledge of the company's fulfilment of the 
conditions of the charter, or as a forfeit in case of their failure. 
Equitable terms having thus been arranged between the friends, 
Pontgrave followed the other employees of the company to the 
rendezvous at Three Rivers with his boatload of goods. 

A month of quietness ensued before the forerunner of 
de Caen appeared with a message begging Champlain to 
join him, which, however, Champlain declined to do, and pray- 
ing him to advise the Indians that he was coming with a choice 
selection of merchandise. Two days afterward Roumier, a clerk 
of the old company, but now in the employ of the new, followed. 
He brought letters from the Intendant, Dolu, Villemenon and 
de Caen. They informed him that the King had decreed 
that both the companies should be permitted to trade during the 
year 1621, each sending to the St. Lawrence the one vessel that 
had already sailed (or wliicli was ready to sail), hut that no ship 
was to sail from any French port without proper clearance papers, 
under severe pains and penalties. The two companies were to con- 
tribute equally towards the support of the captain, soldiers, priests 
and residents in the habitation. Pontgrave had sailed in ignorance 
or in defiance of the clause which imposed confiscation of his ship 
and goods in case of irregularity in his clearance papers, and there 
was therefore technical ground for proceeding against him. But 
it rested with Champlain, and not with de Caen, to take action. To 



150 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

avert trouble, Champlain induced Father George le Baillif, a man 
evidently of tact and moderation, to descend the river on the 
17th of July and try to dissuade de Caen from taking any rash 
steps, and also to assuage the anger of Fathers Paul and 
Guillaume who had a grievance against Pontgrave. Father George 
set about his delicate mission with laudable despatch, but with- 
out much success, for on the 24th he was back from Tadousac 
with the disquieting message that de Caen was bent on seizing 
Pontgrave's ship, but would delay doing so until Champlain 
should arrive, provided he did not tarry. Champlain was un- 
willing to leave the habitation at the mercy of the two factions 
into which the population was divided ; so ill provided was he, 
moreover, that he had not a boat of his own fit for a journey. 
As it was evident, however, that only he could persuade de Caen 
to pursue a moderate course, he sent to Pontgrave to borrow 
a boat. Pontgrave not only accommodated him, but came down 
from Three Rivers, ignorant of the danger which threatened him 
personally and his property. There was something charming in 
the candor and mutual trustfulness of these two noble men. They 
had endured hardship and peril together, and neither could think 
evil of the other or suspect the other of sinister motives. 

Champlain was met by de Caen at the Pointe Aux Alouettes. 
The first interview was friendly. The director of the new com- 
pany expressed unwavering allegiance to the Viceroy, and recog- 
nized Champlain and his lieutenancy. When they reached Ta- 
dousac he offered Champlain the hospitality of his ship, but 
Champlain, wishing to be neutral, preferred putting up with 
the accommodation his own schooner afforded. Then the quarrel 
broke out with great acrimony. De Caen claimed to have au- 
thoritative but private instructions, which he refused, however, 
to exhibit. In virtue of these he demanded the seizure of Pont- 
grave's ship, to be used in operations against the illicit traders, 
the Rochellois. Champlain pointed out that the new company 
and its agents had three boats manned by crews of 150 men, two 
being of ample size to patrol the river and gulf, and 
destroy all marauders, while they were quite unable to protect 
themselves. Then Father George took up the argument, 



POACHING IX THE ST. LAWRENCE. I5I 

but all to no avail. If de Caen's only reason for seizing 
Pontgrave's ship was to use it against the Rochelle traders, 
Champlain offered to take command of it himself, provided de 
Caen would supply the crew. This proposal was rejected. 
De Caen simply wanted the ship, and as he had ample force — 
about three times as many men as the whole male population of 
the colony — he determined to seize it. Thereupon Champlain 
took it under his protection, but this empty assertion of sover- 
eignty availed nothing. De Caen warned Champlain he would 
appropriate the vessel, and Champlain, not wishing to come 
into open collision with a man so able to coerce him and the 
colony, conveniently went on a canoeing expedition up the Sa- 
guenay while the high handed act was being carried into eft'ect. 
Having attained his object, de Caen was willing to treat with 
Champlain as to contributing his share of men and provisions for 
the habitation. He returned Pontgrave's ship, pretending that it 
was worthless for war purposes, but demanded and received 
1,700 beaver skins in return for provisions which he claimed he 
had sold to the old company. The claim thus made at the point of 
the sword could not be refused, so Father George paid it. 
Instead, however, of fulfilling his promise to send twenty-five 
men, as his contingent, to the habitation, with provisions for 
their support during the coming winter, he sent only eighteen. 
The old company supplied the deficiency. 

While de Caen had been wasting time in argument and war- 
like boasting, the rival traders had been busy. A ship was lying 
at Isle Verte, not fifteen miles distant, bartering away its cargo 
for furs with the Indians. It slipped away the day before he 
discovered its presence, and all he found was an abandoned pali- 
sade, which the traders had erected for defense if attacked. 
But Champlain's annoyances were not yet over. Besides sending 
him some provisions for winter support, de Caen forwarded a 
quantity of arms and ammunition. Believing it impossible, after 
he had inspected these, that the King and the Viceroy could have 
so inadequately fulfilled their promise to supply him with weap- 
ons, he had a sworn inventory taken of the arms. The document is 
curious, as being the first bill of warlike material furnished to a 



152 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

fortress destined to become so famous in the world's history. It 
enumerates twelve halberds with handles of whitewood painted 
black; two arquebuses, fitted with wheel locks, five to six feet 
long ; two arquebuses to be fired with matches, of the same length ; 
fifty-two pounds of good matches ; one hundred and eighty-seven 
pounds of worthless matches ; fifty common picks ; two petards of 
cast iron, weighing forty-four pounds each; one butterfly-tent; 
two helmets and one axe ; sixty-four sets of pikemen's weapons, 
without armlets; two barrels of musket balls, weighing 439 
pounds. In addition there were handed over to Champlain two 
barrels of gunpowder for cannon, and six barrels of musket balls, 
weighing 2,479 pounds. But Isaac Halard, the new company's 
clerk, who delivered them, could not say whether they were con- 
signed to Champlain by the French Government or contributed by 
de Caen himself. Muskets had been introduced into France about 
1575, but there were none in the consignment, and what powder 
there was was coarse grained, for cannon — none for firearms. 

Champlain and the whole colony must have experienced a 
feeling of blank despair over the heartlessness and falsity of 
the Government and the avarice of the trading company. Well 
might he say that he "could not imagine it possible his Majesty 
should have sent us such a sorry lot of weapons for our defense, 
especially after doing him the honor of himself promising by 
letter an ample supply, which promise was confirmed by Mon- 
seigneur Puisieux." On August 29, de Caen left Tadousac with 
his cargo of furs and the execrations of the whole community. 
He was followed on September 7 by Pontgrave and Father 
George, who carried with him a bill of grievances from the 
colony. The document is given in full by Sagard, who 
says : "The Sieur de Champlain and all the principal French 
inhabitants of Canada" (whence we may infer that there 
were at that period other foreigners in the colony beside 
the unfortunate Scotchman who had been summarily carried 
off by Satan's imps), "desirous of finding some relief from the 
confusion which distracted the colony, had called a public meeting. 
It deputed the Reverend Father George to make to his Majesty 
their humble remonstrances, trusting to his well-known prudence 



PETITION OF THE INHABITANTS. 



to do in their behalf whatever he might consider to be 
most conducive to the welfare and advancement of the colony." 
The meeting then adopted the following resolution: "Know 
All Men, That on the i8th of August in the Year of Grace 1621, 
in the Reign of, etc., etc., with the consent of the said Lieu- 
tenant, a general meeting of all the French inhabitants of New 
France was called for the purpose of devising some reHef from 
the ruin and desolation which threatened this whole country, and 
for finding some means of preserving the Catholic, Apostolic and 
Roman religion in its purity, the authority of the King in its 
inviolability, etc. ; it has therefore been Resolved, unanimously, to 
choose a representative from this meeting as a deputy from the 
whole company who will lay before the feet of his 2^Iajesty in all 
himiility a statement of the condition of the countrv% and will 
describe the disorders which have distracted it, notably during 
this year of 1621. And that this deputy also visit his Lord the 
Viceroy in order to explain to him the state of disorder and so- 
licit his support in their complaint." The meeting selected 
Father George to lay their cause before the King, and authorized 
him to employ, if necessar}% one or two advocates to plead their 
cause before the Council and the courts, and take measures 
to secure the safety of their delegate while engaged in prosecut- 
ing his mission. The resolution drawn up by the Sieur Baptiste 
Guers, Commissaire, is a masterpiece of legal verbiage, and 
concludes with the following: "Given at Quebec, la Nouvelle 
France, over the signature of the principal inhabitants, acting 
for the whole, who, for the purpose of further authentication, have 
prayed the \^ery Reverend Father in God, Denis Jamay, Com- 
missaire des Religieux in this land, to affix his ecclesiastical 
seal on the date and year hereinbefore named." Signed — Cliam- 
plain ; Fr^res, Denis Jamay. Commissaire; Joseph Le Caron ; 
Hebert, Procureur du Roi ; Gilbert Courseron. Lieutenant du Pre- 
vost; Boulle, Pierre Reye, Le Tardif. J. Le Groux, P. Desportes, 
Nicolas, Greffier of the jurisdiction of Quebec, and clerk of the 
assembly ; Guers, Commissionne de Monseigneur le Viceroy. 

The callinq- of a town meeting and the titles affixed to the 
signatures express eloquently the eflPort Champlain had made to 



154 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

create out of the scanty and incongruous elements with which he 
had to deal an organized civil community. There must have been 
a court of justice of which Nicolas was clerk, Champlain 
himself probably being judge. Nicolas was therefore by 
right, and probably by virtue of his education, selected as 
secretary of the meeting. The name which follows those of the 
Governor and the priests was that of Hebert, the first well-to-do 
immigrant, who had been now three years in the country, and 
whom Champlain had appointed Procureur du Roi, Crown Coun- 
sel. Then came that of Courseron, Lieutenant du Prevost — in or- 
dinary parlance, the constable. Small as the population yet was, 
the machinery of civilization had been introduced, and the people 
were being educated in its use. This miniature civil government 
Champlain must have organized after his proclamation of the 
sovereignty of the French Crown, under himself as Lieutenant, 
the previous spring. 

The stagnation of the colony, and now an acute business 
rivalry worse than stagnation, were, of course, primarily due 
to the colonial policy of the mother land. The French Crown, 
in refusing to incur expense in fostering colonization, followed 
the lines laid down for Henry IV. by his famous minister, the 
Due de Sully, who in these colonization schemes could not see any 
immediate profit to the treasury. Worried by his master's extra- 
vagances and shameless expenditure on his pleasures, he classed 
his colonization enterprises in the same category, for in 1603 he 
said : ''The colony that was sent to Canada this year was among 
the number of those things of which I disapprove. No riches can 
come from the new world north of the 40th latitude. His Majesty 
gave the command of this expedition to the Sieur de Monts." 

England, Holland and France all adopted and followed the 
same policy. All three created trading companies to develop the 
resources of those sections of the North American continent which 
they severally undertook to colonize, and to secure possession to 
the parent State by actual occupation of the appropriated slice. But 
the conditions of the original charters varied as widely as the 
fortunes of the companies. The political tendencies of the parent 
State were expressed in the original instruments, and the result- 



OTHER COLONIAL EXPERIMENTS. 



ing companies, with their colonial progenies, continued to reflect 
more or less accurately the development of ideas in Europe. Ex- 
ception may be claimed in the case of the Dutch colonies on the 
Hudson and the Delaware, which hardly survived long enough 
to outlive the defects of their origin in a close, highly privileged 
trading company, and to grow into a political community deriving 
life and inspiration from the parent State. 

Despite the liberal representative government which the Dutch 
enjoyed at home, their colony of New Netherlands, created under 
the charter of the West India Company in 1623, was as com- 
pletely an appanage of this trading company as was New France 
of the selfish commercial associations which for half a century 
carried on the farce of pretending to colonize it. The directors 
used their knowledge and influence to secure, by purchase from 
the Indians, large tracts of the best and most available lands with- 
in the sphere of the company's operations. Then these padrones 
imported laborers to cultivate their estates, but the immigrants 
were ser\-ants — not independent adventurers, bent on self-better- 
ment by acquiring and improving their own lands. It was no 
more to the interest of the Dutch Trading Company, whose ar- 
ticle of export was furs, to fell the forests and settle the lands, 
with consequent destruction of the fur-bearing animals, than 
it was to the advantage of the Canadian trading companies, or 
subsequently of the Hudson Bay Company, to destroy the sources 
of their wealth. It was nearly twenty years after the first settle- 
ment of the Hudson before any pretense of popular government 
was allowed to the colonists of the North or South rivers, or 
before the monopoly of the company was abrogated. Then colo- 
nists of ever\' hue poured in. for the population was augmented, 
not only from Europe, but by the discontented from the English 
colonies lying to the north and to the south. 

The original \'irginia Company was an Enorlish trading com- 
pany, but organized on very different lines from the French and 
the Dutch. An Act was passed in 1606, incorporating two 
companies under one charter : the one. the London Company, for 
founding a colony in south Virginia : the other, the Plvmouth 
Company, for founding a like colony in north Virginia. The 



156 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

first in the field was the Plymouth Company, which, under 
the leadership of Sir John Popham, Sir Fernando Gorges, 
and others, equipped the ''Richard of Plymouth," and made 
a landing on the coast of Maine. The death of Topham 
led to the speedy abandonment of the enterprise, and the 
north Virginia scheme was never again undertaken under 
the company's auspices. The second detachment sailed to 
plant a colony in south Virginia in December of the same 
year. The endeavors of the London Company to establish 
a plantation in south Virginia, if not successful in the man- 
ner contemplated by the founders, was fruitful of consequences 
which the most far-seeing could hardly have contemplated. The 
charter was the first colonial constitution conceived by English 
statesmen. If it emanated from the fanciful brain of James L, 
its provisions must certainly have been suggested by a more 
liberal mind than that of a Stuart. The colonists were not 
to be endowed with representative government as we un- 
derstand it; but, while a court in London, nominated by the 
Crown, was to exercise control of the several plantations, which 
might compose so many distinct colonies within the sphere of 
the company's vast domain, extending from the 34th to the 
45th parallel of north latitude, each colony might elect its own 
council. The company was a trading company, organized with 
hope of gain, but in the hearts of some of its members a desire to 
curb the power of Spain was uppermost, while others were moved 
by a missionary spirit. 

In this first attempt to raise a child of the State at a 
distance from the parent, far more liberty and rights of 
self-control were given than we have seen bestowed on the few 
colonists of New France, either in Acadia or on the St. Law- 
rence. The settlers of the Virginia Company and their children 
forever were to enjoy all the liberties, franchises and immunities 
enjoyed by Englishmen in England, but subject to a fatal flaw: 
'The land was to be held by the Crown, as in our manor 
of East Greenwich in the County of Kent, in free and 
common socage only, and in capite." As constituted, the first 
Virginia colony was therefore a communistic community. There 



THE VIRGINIA COLONY. 



were to be no individual interests, but all produce was to go 
into a common stock in which the colonists and the promoters were 
to share. All personal motive and personal exertion were to be sub- 
ordinate to the common good. In this case, as in such com- 
munities generally, the labor of the many simply went to augment 
the profits of those who, by fair means or foul, obtained control. 
This was one, but only one, cause of the failure of the original 
company. The personnel of the colony was composed of ma- 
terial ill fitted for pioneer life. Among the 105 left by Cap- 
tain Newport on James Island, 29 are designated as gentlemen, 
and 12 as laborers. It had been better if these numbers 
had been reversed. The site for the settlement was ill chosen. 
A low, swampy island was selected on the James River, and 
on it Jamestown was founded. All that remains of it is a 
crumbling wall in a farm, with whose mould is mingled the dust of 
thousands of early fever-stricken settlers. It is a sad story of mis- 
rule and bad judgment. Through the energy and tact of John 
Smith the colony was barely saved from annihilation till the arri- 
val, in 1608, of Archer and Radclifife with 500 fresh visionaries. 
This meant, however, 500 more mouths to feed, and famine de- 
vastated the colony from 1608 to 1610. Nevertheless, despite the 
evil fate which befell the unfortunate laborers as well as the finan- 
cial backers of the company of 1606, so enthusiastic were people 
of all classes in England in favor of the Virginia scheme, 
that, when the company was reorganized in 1609, not less than 
659 persons of all ranks and professions and 66 trade guilds 
became purchasers of stock. Herein we see once more a marked 
contrast to the indifference of the French people over their colo- 
nization ventures. The new company enjoyed a wider measure 
of self-government, but prosperity did not actually dawn till, 
mainly through the exertion of Sir Edwin Sandys, a grant was 
obtained in November, 161 8, of "The Great Charter or Commis- 
sion of Privileges, Orders and Laws." Under it the land of the 
colony, heretofore held in common, could be held in severalty, 
whereby individual incentive, or — let us admit with the socialists 
— individual selfishness, was called into play. At the same time a 
representative government, for the first time in the New World, 



158 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



was conferred on the settlers. In 1620 the colony passed from 
the control of the company to that of the Crown, so far as ap- 
pointing the officials of the government was concerned. Thus in 
the same year, 1618, in which Champlain was wearily and vainly 
arguing with the associates to carry out their promises of coloniza- 
tion on the St. Lawrence, and trying with no better success to 
induce the government to compel the company to fulfill its pledges, 
Virginia, after twelve years of more terrible viscissitudes than had 
befallen the little band of traders and traffickers on the St. Law- 
rence, was about to inaugurate the most momentous experiment 
in free government ever made. Mark the result: by the date — 
1622 — which we have reached in our history of the Quebec 
colony, the population of Virginia had grown to about four thou- 
sand, while that of Canada was only sixty. 

Already for two years another group of Englishmen had 
been struggling for life on the barren shores of Massachusetts. 
They had been impelled to seek the New World by the im- 
perative craving for freedom. The motives, therefore, which 
had emboldened them to land and undertake the almost hopeless 
task of winning an existence from the Plymouth rocks, were 
of a higher order than those which inspired the adventurers of the 
James River. Trade and its attendant gain had not been the 
purpose of this migration. But, like the Huguenots of France, 
they brought to bear on business the courage which had sustained 
them in venturing to differ from accepted opinions ; and the same 
independence of thought which impelled them to frame for 
themselves a new ecclesiastical polity made them the most 
shrewd and intelligent merchants of the Western Continent. In 
politics they brought over from England, and from the Dutch 
Republic, views and sympathies the very reverse of those of 
the settlers on the St. Lawrence, and far in advance of those 
of the majority of their countrymen on the other side of the 
Atlantic. These intensely Puritanic and strenuous groups, orig- 
inally gathered around their churches and pastors, developed 
into the most democratic people of the whole world. We see, 
therefore, the three communities, or four — if we include the 
Dutch — working out simultaneously and side by side the prob- 



THE BTRTH OF NEW ENGLAND. 



lems of colonization. The differences they exhibited in char- 
acter, methods, and results afford most instructive contrasts. 
The French in Canada, under a paternal government and a 
despotic church, fettered by the privileges bestowed upon one com- 
mercial company after another, never seemed to fret seriously 
under the yoke, and certainly never struggled for independ- 
ence, but developed on the other hand certain distinctive na- 
tional traits which became so ingrained in their character 
that they still not only exist, but constitute a force which 
it is unwise to overlook or underestimate. The English 
in opening Virginia, while moved by a fierce determination to 
check the expansion of Spain and the spread of the Spanish 
ecclesiastical system, were at the same time trying an experi- 
ment in sociology which failed so emphatically that it never 
was repeated. This stirring seventeenth century was, indeed, less 
an age of renaissance than of revolution, when men were more 
ready than they have ever been since to carry theories into actual 
practice. And so the Virginia colonists, having freedom of ac- 
tion and being endowed with common sense and a rugged though 
teachable spirit, made haste to abandon their communistic theories 
and practices as soon as these were found unprofitable. They still 
remained more ardent political theorists than even their Puritani- 
cal fellow colonists in the North. They sustained during colonial 
times a bold opposition to all infringement of what they considered 
their rights as British citizens; and, when the rupture came, im- 
pressed indelibly their theories of government on the constitution 
of the new nation. They were the furthest away from Canada, 
and therefore their example was less obnoxious than that of New 
England to the Canadian governors and the Canadian clergy ; 1)ut, 
from the time of Argall's piratical descent on the Jesuit colonics 
of Acadia till the conquest of Canada, there was in Virginia as un- 
compromising a hatred of the French system of arbitrary govern- 
ment and of the French ecclesiastical policy as in Massachusetts 
itself. 

In New England, bordrrinc^ on Canada, \vc see a group of 
colonies created under the influence of political views at diame- 
trical variance from those prevailing on the St. Lawrence, espcci- 



l60 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

ally after the expulsion of the Huguenots; and with theological be- 
liefs still more opposed to the creed of the French inhabitants, 
though inculcated by a clergy which would have exacted as im- 
plicit obedience as Rome itself, if their followers would but have 
yielded it. The colonies carried on a ceaseless struggle for un- 
trammelled trade, untrammelled creed, untrammelled self-gov- 
ernment; for everything, in fact, which was denied the French 
colonist, and which he was taught it was rebellion, if not sacri- 
lege, to demand. The repeated raids on each other's territory, and 
the inhuman Indian reprisals m.ade on both sides of the frontier, 
so envenomed the feeling of Canada and New England toward 
one another, that a dispassionate estimate of each other's char- 
acter and aims was impossible. There was thus a ready made 
prejudice on the part of the French-Canadian against New Eng- 
land's method of government which effectually prevented his im- 
bibing any New England notions of constitutional liberty. The 
wonderful prosperity of all these seaboard colonies, though con- 
trasting strangely with his own poverty, does not seem, strange to 
say, to have excited the fear, still less the envy, of the French- 
Canadian, so completely were his will and intelligence in the keep- 
ing of his civil and ecclesiastical superiors. Nevertheless, little 
more than a century was to pass before descendants of the group 
of fever-stricken settlers in the swamps of James Island, and those 
of the shivering pilgrims of Plymouth rock, were to give the im- 
pulse to England's effort which substantially obliterated French 
power in the New World. ' 

The same opposing tendencies prevailed in these neighboring 
colonies, French and English, from first to last: on one side of 
the Hne bureaucratic absolutism and meek submission to the 
rule of the mother country and her agents; on the other 
side of the line, opposition to all control, an almost unreason- 
able resentment against the remotest suggestion of domination by 
England, and a lurking determination, distinctly felt long before 
it was expressed, to throw ofif all allegiance to her. The English 
colonial and commercial policy was so narrow and unjust, from 
our present point of view, as to furnish plausible reasons for the 
ill-disguised desire for separation ; but it was liberal in comparison 



NEW EXGLAXD AND NEW FRANCE. 



l6l 



with that which France imposed on her colonies, and not more 
oppressive than much of England's sectional legislation at home. 
In fact the broader views which the opposition of the colonies 
to imperial selfishness impressed on the British system have in 
Britain itself borne riper and more wholesome fruit than in 
the lands where they had their birth. 

New England and New France — how different would 
have been the course of American history if these two communi- 
ties, born almost simultaneously, could have declined to share the 
quarrels of the rest of the family, and determined to emulate each 
other in creating in this western world a new, if not a higher, 
civilization, adapted to the altered and more favorable circum- 
stances under which they were placed. Unfortunately, their 
courses diverged from the very first. At every step of their history 
we come upon traces of the deplorable results of unchristian 
antagonism and bitter hatred, where there should have been 
only vigorous rivalry ; of war, where the interests of both would 
have been best subserved by peace. The English colonists 
steered whither their immediate interests pointed, guided by no 
strong national affiliation to the mother country. To New 
France, Old France was from the first, and always remained, an 
inflexible though kindly disposed parent, imposing rules on her 
children and repressing all self-assertion as inexorably as a French 
father. The French-Canadian remained a Frenchman in a much 
closer sense than the American colonist remained an Englishman. 

But to return. We left Champlain in the autumn of 1621. 
with his young wife in the tumble-down habitation, which must 
have been uncomfortably crowded, if most of the fifty inhabit- 
ants of the post lived within its walls. He had not progressed 
sufficiently with the Chateau of St. Louis to render it habitable, 
and the only separate house to which any reference is made is 
that of Hebert. With a proud reserve, Champlain seldom dwells 
on the hardships he was personally exposed to, and still less 
on those his family suffered. It was not until he was returning 
with his wife and household effects in the autumn of 1624. "after 
having hibernated," as he says, "almost five years in want and 
discomfort," that he vents his indignation at the neglect the 



1 62 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

company had shown, not only of the comfort and safety of its 
employees, but of its own interests. During these years nothing 
of importance occurred, and the colony — still unworthy of the 
name — gained neither in numbers nor in public spirit. From 
the incidental references made to the company's affairs, we may 
judge that, from a mercantile point of view, they did not 
prosper; for the Basque and the Rochelle traders, as well as the 
Spaniards and Flemings, impudently and with impunity poached 
on their reserves, and with armed ships, which neither Cham- 
plain, as Governor, nor the officers of the company, had men 
or weapons to resist, defiantly sailed the gulf and river up to 
Grosse Island, fishing, and trading with the Indians. The feud 
between the two companies, which had worried Champlain in 
the summer of 1621, and been so disastrous to both concerns, 
was adjusted in France during the following winter by a con- 
solidation ; the old company accepting a five-twelfth interest in 
the new corporation. The servants of the company and the King's 
Lieutenants were meanwhile staving off famine through the skill 
of the Indian moose hunters, and Champlain was conciliating the 
savages ; trying to tempt some of them to settle down as farm- 
ers ; bribing their head men with titles and baubles ; forming 
schemes of exploration in the interior which he was doomed never 
to conduct ; and using his influence in the laudable task of healing 
the feud between the Iroquois and the Huron and Algonquin allies 
of the French. 

The summer of 1622 was well advanced before his old 
comrade, Pontgrave, and Santein, a representative of de Caens 
and the new company, arrived with news of the consoli- 
dation of the old and the new companies. It was the middle of 
July before de Caen himself appeared, eager to reach Three Rivers 
lest the Indians should scatter, disappointed of their annual barter 
and their annual debauch. He left a certain Hebert in charge of 
his ship at Tadousac, where an unseemly dispute occurred about 
religious precedence, eminently characteristic of the time. The 
primitive apostolic rule of self-abasement and preference for the 
lower place did not characterize the practices of either party. It 
seems that de Caen, when on board, held prayers for his co- 



RSBUILDIXG OF THE ''hABITxVTION." 



163 



religionists in the cabin, and the Cathohcs perforce performed 
their devotions in the forecastle. Hebert when left in charge, 
though himself a Catholic, adhered to de Caen's orders, but when 
de la Ralde came on board and assumed command, he reversed 
the order and turned the Huguenots into the forecastle to pray, 
and promoted the Catholics to the cabin. The dispute waxed hot, 
and the good offices of the Recollet Fathers were taxed to as- 
suage the quarrel. As the opinion was decidedly expressed that 
Hebert's action was most unreasonable, the Huguenots had to 
cultivate their piety as best they could in the forecastle. 

The gentle Recollets doubtless loved peace, but, if we may 
judge from Champlain's implications, they were a trifle too fond 
of their ease. We must, however, recollect that as this part of 
Champlain's narrative was probably edited by the Jesuits, the 
motives, if not the acts, of the monks may have been slightly dis- 
torted in the telling. What wonder if gossip abounded in the 
habitation during the long winter months! And what subject of 
gossip could be so racy as the lives and doings of the priests in 
their secluded monastery on the St. Charles ! H they would isolate 
themselves, they must take the consequences, and be misunder- 
stood and misrepresented. The Governor does, it is true, give 
them credit for being zealous gardeners ; ''but well they might be," 
he said, "for they had naught else to do but plant the seed and 
watch it grow." The company's servants were, however, even 
more incorrigible than the Fathers. They could not be induced 
either to sow or to pray, and it required much vehement urging to 
get them to do even such agricultural work as was necessary for 
the very preservation of the colony. In fact, no one was stirred by 
the impulse of self-interest, and few by religious enthusiasm. 
It was the company, the company, and only the company ; and 
then, as now, to do as little as possible for, and extort as much as 
possible from, the soulless corporation was every one's end and 
aim. 

Champlain himself, on the contrary, despite neglect and broken 
promises, was still enthusiastic. Pontgravc, who was spending 
the winter in Canada, was growing old and gouty, and during the 
whole spring of 7623 was a burden on Champlain's care, and the 



164 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

recipient, we may well believe, of the tender ministrations of the 
Chatelaine of the habitation. The colony was not strengthened by 
the accession of any sturdy settlers, but two more priests. Father 
Nicholas Viel and Father Gabriel Sagard, arrived in 1623, and 
henceforth, for seven years we have in Sagard's history the testi- 
mony of an eye witness of what occurred on the St. Lawrence. 
It was the middle of July before de Caen reached Quebec, and as 
the Indians were already due on the upper river, he hurried west, 
accompanied by Champlain. 

After their return to Quebec, de Caen and Champlain made 
a trip to Cap Tourmente, to inspect the beaver meadows, where 
they found natural hay enough for all the animals. A survey 
was next made of the old habitation. All their masons and car- 
penters were called in as experts, and the decision was unani- 
mously reached that the woodwork of the old barn was irretriev- 
ably rotten, but that it was worth while making a door from with- 
out into the stone cellar, and abolishing the trap door from the 
magazine above, so as to protect the liquor in the wine cellar 
from illicit raids. With such trifles is the opening scene of the 
great drama of the French regime in the New World occupied. 

Pontgrave returned with the Sieur de Caen to France in or- 
der to seek medical relief for his ailments. It was still only 
September, and therefore there was time to prepare plans of the 
new habitation, which was on a much more pretentious scale than 
the crazy structure it was to supplant, and to commence its erec- 
tion. It was to have a frontage of 280 feet. It was to be defended 
by a tower at each corner, and a ravelin was to be constructed with 
its apex to the river. A ditch and drawbridge were to aflford 
additional protection. It was never completed on Champlain's 
plan. Only two towers were erected. They stood on the 
present Rue de Notre Dame, one at the corner of the Rue sous 
le Fort, a few feet from the door of the present Church of Notre 
Dame des Victoires (see note to Laverdiere's Champlain, page 
1053). Meanwhile the castle of St. Louis was bein^ erected on 
the cliff above the habitation. To facilitate passage between it 
and the habitation a better trail — for no cart had yet reached New 
France — was cut and graded, following probably the present Rue 



NEW TROUBLES. 



165 



de la Montagne. The winter was a long one. Material was col- 
lected for both the new habitation and the fort, which was ap- 
proaching completion, when on the 20th of April a furious gust 
of wind carried away its roof bodily. The building was deemed 
too high, and Champlain therefore cut off the second story and 
made all haste to cover in the mutilated structure; for with the 
Chateau unroofed and a dilapidated habitation, he and the colony 
were in danger of being left without either fort or homestead ; 
more especially as the same gale had torn down the gable of He- 
bert's house, the only other dwelling at the post then or up to the 
date of Sagard's leaving Canada. On the 6th of May, 1624, Cham- 
plain had dug the foundation of his new house, and the founda- 
tion stone was laid carefully with the date and the arms of 
France and those of Monsieur de Montmorency, and Champlain's 
name as Lieutenant. This stone, according to Ferland, was 
found while excavating on the site of the magazine, and was 
built in above the door of a house adjoining the Lower Town 
chapel. The house was burned in 1854, and the inscription dis- 
appeared. 

On the 2nd of June a shallop came in with the news of the 
arrival of a sixty ton sloop at Tadousac, bringing much needed 
provisions. The captain said that de Caen was to follow, 
but to Champlain's annoyance he brought no mail from those in 
authority or from de Caen himself — only an unofficial letter from 
le Gendre, one of the unofficial partners of the company. It was 
the nth of July before de Caen entered the harbor with two 
schooners laden with the usual goods for the Indian fairs. De 
Caen's lieutenant, de la Ralde, had been all the spring in the 
Gulf at his headquarters on the Island of Miscou, near the mouth 
of the Bay dcs Chalcurs, fishing and trafficking with the In(h'ans 
there, while tlie more important brancli of tlie company's 1)usi- 
ness — the fur trade with the Indians of the Lakes — was l)eing 
neglected, and in danger of slipping into hostile channels, to the 
serious detriment of the colony's prosperity. 

Another cause of worry to the Governor was tlic conduct of 
the French who had accompanied the Hurons to their village 
the summer previous. One hafl died, ciglit liad remained on 



i66 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



the Georgian Bay with Father Nicolas, and four only had re- 
turned with Father Joseph and Brother Gabriel, when they de- 
scended with their savage flock to seek some needful supplies. Du 
Vernay, who brought the first news, said that the French had been 
ill-used by the Indians, but Champlain attributed their treatment 
to their own misdeeds. Brother Gabriel Sagard himself ar- 
rived a fortnight later with a very serious indictment against his 
countrymen. The truth was that the French had taken Indian 
wives without the benediction of the Church, and were clearly 
lapsing, without any effort at self-restraint, into a life of semi- 
barbarism. Already about one-fifth of the whole French popula- 
tion had adopted Indian manners and Indian wives. De Caen 
was late this year in coming out with his merchandise, but be- 
fore he returned to Old France he made a tour of inspection 
of the country around Cap Tourmente, the Island of Orleans and 
the adjacent islands, which he claimed had been given him by 
Monseigneur, though Monseigneur's lieutenant had not been no- 
tified of the grant. De Caen was not of the true faith, and 
in regenerated Canada his territorial claim, if ever put forth, was 
certainly not confirmed. Upon a careful consideration of the 
whole situation Champlain decided to return to France with his 
family, and make one more effort to have the colony es- 
tablished on a more satisfactory footing. He left the hab- 
itation so nearly completed that fifteen days' more work should 
have sufficed. The nephew of Sieur Guillaume de Caen, the 
Sieur Emery de Caen, was left in charge of the company's af- 
fairs, and Champlain named him his representative — Vice-Gov- 
ernor, therefore, over a grand total of fifty-one persons, including 
men, women, boys and children. Whether the Recollet Fathers 
were counted in this number is not stated — probably not. It was 
the 15th of August, 1624, when they sailed from Quebec. 

According to Le Clercq, the Iroquois in this summer of 1624, 
during Champlain's absence, after taking a Recollet Brother — 
Father Oullain — prisoner at the trading rendezvous of the Sault 
St. Louis, followed their enemies, the Hurons, as far as Quebec. 
They were afraid to attack the fort, but ascended the St. Charles 
and assailed the Recollet monastery. They were beaten back with 



MADAME CHAMPLAIN RETURNS TO FRANCE. 



167 



a loss of seven or eight of their number, but two on the French 
side died of arrow wounds. Le Clercq tells us the story on the 
authority of Madame Couillard, who was in the fort at the time, 
but it is strange so notable an event should have been passed 
over by the contemporaneous commentators — Champlain and 
Sagard. It is therefore not impossible that ]\Iadame Couillard 
drew somewhat on her imagination ; it was an imaginative age. 

]\Iadame Champlain sailed with her husband never to return. 
One would like to get an actual glimpse at the real life of this 
good woman during her so j urn in the colony. For twelve years 
previously husband and wife had met only after long inter- 
vals of separation, and, except while he was detained in i6t2- 
161 3 in France for twenty-one months, greetings and partings 
followed all too closely, until the brave woman decided to share 
her husband's hardships, and bury herself in the forests and 
snows of Canada, with no female society but IMadame Hebert and 
her daughter and her own three waiting women. The Recollet 
Fathers must have been welcome guests in her salon at the 
habitation, yet she is not so much as mentioned by the contem- 
porary historian, Sagard. He goes into minute details as to 
the manner of life of the Huron girls and Indian women, yet 
refuses us a glimpse into the character and the occupation of 
the first of that brilliant procession of French ladies, whose 
beauty, charm of manner and conversation have made Quebec 
as famous as its scenery or its commerce. After her husband's 
death Madame Champlain founded an UrsuHne convent at Meaux, 
into which she retired, and the ''Chroniqucs dc TOnlre dcs Ur- 
sulines" (vie de Marie Helene Boulle) gives a story of her life, 
drawing a portrait as unlike that of a real woman as those of 
saints — depicted from memory and imagination — usually are. She 
had abandoned the faith of her father and adopted that of her hus- 
band early in her married life, soon after his return to France in 
1612-1613. She was doubtless an ardent convert. She succeeded 
in persuading her brother to return to the ancient faith, and. 
when in Canada, was probably an example of piety and zeal. But 
her days must have been spent, in part at least, in some other occu- 
pation than catechising Indian children in their own tongue, which 



1 68 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

she is said to have learned, and nursing sick squaws. What she did 
towards beautifying her rooms in the habitation, towards infus- 
ing a ray of refinement into the coarse habits of the trappers, 
soldiers, masons and carpenters of the fort; to what extent she 
shared her husband's labors, whether she accompanied him in 
his shorter journeys and helped him in his clerical work — all 
these are domestic details which, if narrated, would have shed 
some rays of the sunshine of human interest over those dreary 
years of the colony's history. Champlain's own nobility of char- 
acter is displayed in nothing more conspicuously than in his own 
self-effacement and in his reticence regarding his own doings ; we 
readily understand, therefore^ that his native refinement would 
revolt against any parade of his wife's virtues and good deeds. 
In any case, between the spleen or the modesty of the priestly 
historian and the chivalry of the soldier chronicler, all that we 
know is that Madame Champlain landed in Canada in 1620, and 
that she re-embarked in August, 1624. 



CHAPTER VIIL 



Dc Caen's Company and the Capture of Quebec by 
Kirke. J 624- J 629. 

On disembarking in France in 1624 Champlain at once re- 
ported to the King and the King's Viceroy, the Due de Mont- 
morency. It was a discouraging tale he had to tell of stagnation 
everywhere except in the company's commercial department. 
Louis Hebert was the only colonist who was really attempting 
agriculture. A few — as Couillard, Martin, Pivert, Desportes, Du- 
chesne — may have turned their hands in a desultory way to gar- 
dening, but the other notable inhabitants of the post, Marsolet 
Brule, Hertel, Nicollet le Tardif, the three Godefroys, were en- 
gaged exclusively as the company's employees in the fur trade 
and in dealings with the Indians. The scanty population re- 
mained stationary. At most two acres had been cultivated near 
the fort. But trade was fairly active — 15,000 to 20,000 beaver 
skins were exported annually. Champlain had made a laudable 
effort to induce the Indians to cultivate a farm at the Beauport 
Flats; though if he could not persuade his own countrymen to en- 
gage in a pursuit to which they had been accustomed, there 
was little prospect of his succeeding with the savages. The 
only fodder for the few cattle was wild hay. Industrial pursuits 
seemed to have no attraction for the immigrants, who found the 
Indian life strangely congenial and Indian wives quite to their 
taste. Thus a large proportion of the colony had drifted into 
the woods, but instead of l)eing, as they were intended to be, mere 
servants of the trader, they had become as arrant rovers as the 
Indians themselves, and had relapsed into semi-savage hunters. 

In another ship of the fall fleet Brother Gabriel Sagard and 
Father Irenee had crossed the sea to relate their talc of woe and 
ventilate their grievances. Brother Gabriel had been only one year 
in Canada, but in that period had sufficiently proved his com- 



I/O 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



niand of fluent narrative and ardent bigotry; there could be no 
doubt therefore as to his fitness to expound the pious argument 
that all the ills which beset the colony were due to the influence in 
the company's affairs of the hated Huguenots. 

While Champlain was complaining of the company's slack- 
ness in carrying out its scheme of colonization, and the Recollet 
Fathers were dilating on the indignity they were exposed to when 
the Huguenots said their prayers in the cabin, while they had to 
sing the praises of their God in the prow of the ship, which was 
certainly, as he expressed it, "giving the false God, Baal, a pre- 
cedence over the True God," the Viceroy's patience was still 
further taxed by the complaints of the contending factions in the 
company itself. No wonder that he was entirely willing, for a 
valuable consideration, to relinquish the viceroyalty over half a 
continent and fifty colonists, and a small fleet of trading ships, 
whose crews could not even drive poaching rivals from the terri- 
tory over which they had exclusive privileges. With the consent of 
the King, Montmorency transferred his dignities and troubles 
to his nephew, the Due de Ventadour, a much more pious but 
much less able man than himself. Henri de Levis, due de Ven- 
tadour, is said even to have taken holy orders. He retained 
Champlain as his representative in Canada, and the latter informs 
us that, anxious to enlist more energetic missionaries than the Re- 
collets in the service of the Church, the new viceroy arranged 
that six Jesuit priests should go, at his own expense, to con- 
vert the Indians to the True Faith. Brother Sagard, on the con- 
trary, claims the initiative for his Franciscan brotherhood. He at- 
tributes the ill success of his Order to its poverty, and to the indif- 
ference and hardly disguised hostility of the company. To reach 
the Indian's conscience you must, he had discovered, appeal to his 
stomach, and the Recollets had no funds wherewith to effect con- 
versions in that manner. They had succeeded as well as the 
Jesuits in Brazil and in India, for in torrid climates the na- 
tives could subsist on the spontaneous products of the soil ; 
but to reach the heart of the suffering North American In- 
dian, you had to relieve his temporal wants : this they could not 
do — far less could they erect and maintain schools and col- 



THE JESUITS REINFORCE THE RECOLLETS. 



171 



legiate institutions for the Indians and the French. The Recol- 
lets, as members of one of the strictest sub-orders of the Fran- 
ciscans, could own no real estate. The Jesuits, though pledged 
by most solemn vows to individual poverty, chastity and obedi- 
ence, could, as an order, hold real estate and collect rents for the 
maintenance of their schools and colleges — a provision which their 
experience in Canada proved to be wise, and of which they took 
liberal advantage. 

The Jesuit had made his advent into New France under 
the patronage of Madame de Guercheville fifteen years previously, 
and had earned the credit in Acadia of apostolic zeal and 
devotion. But if the Recollet solicited the aid of this powerful 
ally, it was not without some misgiving. Sagard's account of 
the transaction has delicious touches of sincerity to set off his po- 
litic explanation. "^lany of our friends," he says, "dis- 
suaded us from choosing the Jesuit Fathers as our allies, assur- 
ing us that in the long run they would manage to expel us from 
our home, and drive us from the country." But there was really 
nothing in the demeanor of the good Fathers, as far as the charit- 
able annalist could observe, to warrant such an insinuation. Even 
if one or two among them harbored such a thought, it would be 
unfair, he says, to attribute it to all. ''For the sinister scheme of 
one or two priests no more stamps the whole Order with the 
taint of unworthy motives than a single swallow makes a spring." 
Evidently there were one or two among the members of the 
Society of Jesus who did justify the foreboding of the Recollet 
friars; for one day Sagard himself heard from an official 
source that, at a meeting of the Council, it had been decided 
to cut off the "allowance" for the support of two of the Recollets, 
thus reducing their number, as without the allowance which the 
company had always made, the mission could not be sustained on 
its existing footing. Sagard admits that this action, which, how- 
ever, he succeeded in getting reversed, did not augur well for the 
future. To add to their uneasiness, the innocent Recollets were 
not advised of the time of the final meeting of the Jesuit Fathers 
with the Council and with the board of management of the com- 
pany, nor of the day of their departure for Dieppe. At length six 



172 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

Jesuits sailed, five only of whom, three priests and two brothers, 
are mentioned by name in Champlain's narrative. With them 
embarked Father Joseph de la Roche Daillon, the only 
Recollet who had reached the port. Well might Sagard look 
with distrust to the future, despite his reflection that ''little faults 
will creep into the conduct of the best regulated company and 
solecisms be committed in the most poHte society." 

In their haste to take the first ship the Jesuits arrived in Que- 
bec in the spring of 1625, unannounced, and without letters from 
the King. De Caen's nephew, the Sieur Emery, who had been left 
in charge of the company's affairs, and whom Champlain had 
made his deputy, did not offer them hospitality at the habitation, 
though Champlain says they crossed with De Caen himself, and 
were courteously treated by him. Neither the authorities of the fort 
nor the habitants themselves seem to have bidden them a hearty 
welcome. As the old company building had been pulled down, 
and the new one was incomplete, accommodation was scanty, and 
the cordiality of the Huguenot traders was scantier still. The 
Jesuit Fathers were therefore thrown on the tender mercies of 
their Recollet brethren. That fellow priests, animated by the same 
spirit and actuated by the same aims, should dwell together would 
seem a most congenial arrangement, and one wonders, therefore, 
at the indignation expressed over the action of the company's 
agent, the immense credit taken to themselves by the monks for 
a simple act of hospitality and the effusive manner in which it 
is acknowledged by the Jesuit writers. Let it suffice here to record 
the fact that, at the monastery of the Recollets on the Little River, 
the Jesuit missionaries received shelter, and that there they re- 
mained for two years or more, till their own quarters on their 
seignory of Notre Dame des Anges were ready for occupation. 

For a century and a half the Jesuits were one of the most 
powerful ecclesiastical organizations in New France, exhibiting 
there most conspicuously that combination of religious ardor and 
political astuteness which has been the source both of their 
strength and of their weakness the world over, one, however, 
which is quite consistent with the principles of the Church of 
which they have been the most perfectly organized militia. 



CHAM plain's new COMMISSION. 



The Church, when its claim to be the voice of God and the 
arbiter of all things, human and divine, is admitted, neces- 
sarily takes cognizance of the concerns of a man's private life, and 
of the still more important concentration of human interests and 
duties in State afifairs. The interference of the Jesuit Order in 
politics can, therefore, be fully justified on theological grounds, 
however reprehensible it may have been accounted by statesmen 
of ever}' creed and country. We shall find that the members of 
this ubiquitous and at times omnipotent order, though personally 
unassuming, were almost as influential in the counsels of 
the colony as the Governor or the Intendant. Whatever traits 
they elsewhere exhibited, in Canada they displayed religious 
fanaticism mellowed by true devotion, and kept in check by world- 
ly wisdom ; self-abnegation rising to the height of martyrdom, 
associated with corporate selfishness in the business management 
of their vast estate ; devoted loyalty to the Church, associated, if 
their opponents are to be credited, with actual treason to the 
State ; profound learning and strict orthodoxy. 

Champlain's commission as lieutenant of the Duke de Venta- 
dour was ample enough. Its terms implied a real determination 
to colonize and introduce the machinery of civilization, for it em- 
powered the Governor to appoint officers of justice and make pro- 
vision for maintaining and enforcing law and order. It com- 
missioned him to extend exploration westward with a view of 
opening up communication with China and the East Indies, and in 
the meantime to do his best to discover mines of gold, silver and 
copper and, to extract and refine the said metals from their 
ores ; above all to oppose all traffic with the Indians by either 
Frenchmen or other Europeans north and south of Gaspe, from 
the 48th to the 52d degree of latitude. Evidently Champlain's 
free trade argument had had no effect. 

De Caen made a trip to Canada in 1625. Complaint was made 
to his Majesty's Council that he had used his influence to induce 
Catholics to engage in religious rites according to Huguenot prac- 
tice, an impeachment which he denied. There were other dissen- 
sions in the Council. Negotiations were opened looking to the 
transfer of the whole business to de Caen on his guaranteeing thir- 



174 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

ty-six per cent on the capital of 60,000 livres. Evidently the fur 
trade was profitable. The Government intervened, insisting on his 
providing within three days bondsmen to guarantee the fulfillment 
of his contract, also that he appoint a good Catholic, whose alle- 
giance would be beyond suspicion, and satisfactory to the pious 
Duke, as Admiral of his fleet. A certain capitain de la Ralde was 
found, sound in the faith and a trusty sailor, and with him Cham- 
plain set sail in the good ship "Catherine" on April 24, 1626, for 
the habitation, accompanied by Father Joseph le Caron, his own 
brother-in-law, BouUe, and Mons. Destouches, the former with a 
commission as Champlain's lieutenant, the latter as his ensign. 
Another ship, the "Alouette," of eighty tons burden, was chartered 
for 3>500 livres by the Society of Jesus to carry out three 
more Jesuit priests, the Fathers Noiret, Anne de Noue and 
Brother Jean Gaufestre, together with twenty workmen, to be 
employed in the erection of the Jesuit mission, which Father 
Lalemant, with the aid of carpenters borrowed from the habita- 
tion, had already commenced to build on the north bank of the 
St. Charles, near the spot where Cartier wintered. They had a 
tempestuous passage, and it was the 5th of July before they 
anchored under the cliff. 

For a time hereafter we shall have in addition to Cham- 
plain, two ecclesiastical chroniclers to draw from. The re- 
ligious news and gossip of Father Sagard is supplemented by the 
first of the more humanly interesting records of the Jesuit Fathers, 
who looked at life in its manifold phases from a much more 
practical point of view than the Franciscan Friars. Isolated 
in their monastery, the latter referred ever to their fellow coun- 
trymen at the fort as ''Les Fran^ais." Their vows seem to sever 
the very ties of nationality, as well as to destroy their interest 
in the common doings of common men. Not so, or at least 
not to the same extent, was it with the Jesuits, for Father 
Lalemant says, in a letter to his brother, that trade, to wit, 
the fur trade, in Canada at that time was the pivot on which 
even mission work must revolve; he therefore gives his brother 
some account of the business transactions of the fur company 
in that year of grace, 1625. He tells how formerly, before 



IDLENESS IN THE COLONY. 



the second association obtained exclusive trade privileges, there 
used to assemble in Tadousac from fifteen to twenty ships to 
trade with the Indians. Now there arrived in June at most 
two, and sometimes only one. He enumerates all the articles 
brought for traffic with the Indians. They consist of the usual 
motley assortment of merchandise, including even Indian night- 
caps. In exchange the traders took back all the various furs 
which are still the products of the roving Indian's labors. He 
puts the annual shipment of beaver skins at from 15,000 to 20,- 
000, and the price in France at one pistole per skin. But the 
company's expenses, he tells us, were heavy. Beside the outlay in 
ships and provisions, there were some 40 men employed the year 
round in Quebec and Tadousac, and crews of at least 150 on 
the two ships owned by the company which were engaged in the 
fur trade. The wages varied from 100 ecus to 106 livres, with 
board.* 

The two years of Champlain's absence had been uneventful. 
He tells us nothing of ^vhat happened at the post ; in truth there 
was nothing to tell. Before departing two years previously, he 
had gathered well-nigh enough stone, lime and lumber to rebuild 
the habitation and complete the fort ; and they were almost as 
he had left them. He might well complain of the indolence of 
all hands. The excuse given — for of course there was an excuse 
— was that half the time of the 55 inhabitants had been spent 
in bringing the fodder for the animals from the natural meadow 
at Cap Tourmente on their tiny craft to Quebec. To remedy this 
he determined to erect farm buildings at the Cape itself, and 
there feed the cattle for the sustenance of the fort. He little 
dreamed how futile his labor would be. 

Father Joseph de la Roche Dallion, one of the Recollets, and 
Father Brebeuf, a Jesuit, started in the summer of 1625. ac- 
cording to Sagard, for the Huron country, but their licarts failed 
them, and they returned, after hearing of the drowning of good 

♦ The grand ,'cu was worth six francs, but the fciit ,'cu, for which the 
word /cu stands, was worth three francs. The livre varied from 20 sous, at Tours, 
to 25 sous in value, at Paris. The wages therefore varied from $60 to 52 r of our 
Currency. 



176 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

Father Nicolas in the Ottawa, on his way back from the Georg- 
ian Bay. That can hardly have been the motive, for Father 
Brebeuf's subsequent glorious career and martyrdom make it im- 
possible to suspect him of timidity. Probably the Hurons had 
filled their canoes with merchandise, and declined to overload 
them with the two missionaries. However that may have been, 
the next summer the Jesuit Father accompanied them to their 
homes, and became the first of the gallant band who exposed them- 
selves to every hardship, even to martyrdom, in the propagation of 
the True Faith among the Hurons. 

But the most important event of the whole season, if we may 
judge by the detail with which it is narrated, was the struggle 
at Quebec for the possession of a little Indian boy, who was a 
favorite of Father Nicolas, and had accompanied him on his last 
fatal journey. Though the little urchin was at the Recollet 
monastery, the Jesuits were bidding for him, and Emery de 
Caen himself wished to take him to France under his patronage, as 
a proof that the company was doing something towards fulfilling 
its engagements in the way of civilizing the Indian. So between 
the three claimants for the guardianship of the boy, the father, 
with true Indian shrewdness, was making a threefold profit out 
of his offspring. Although Father Paul, who was ready to sail 
for France, took charge of him on the voyage, the Jesuits ulti- 
mately managed to win the prize through the intercession of their 
patron the Duke de Ventadour. They made the most of the ac- 
quisition, for the little fellow, after such instruction in the faith as 
could be given by a lay teacher, the only person connected with 
the Jesuits in France who had any acquaintance with the boy's 
language — Sagard speaks of it as rather superficial — was bap- 
tized with much ceremony in the Cathedral of Rouen, under the 
name of Louis de Sainte Foy. The Duke de Longueville and 
Madame de Villars stood as godparents, and the crowd filled the 
pile to see the son of a king, and the heir apparent to a vast do- 
main, as the sailors reported him to be, received into Holy Church. 
It was a fitting counterblast to the Protestant baptism of Poca- 
hontas and her marriage to John Rolfe. 

While such petty intrigues were occupying the minds of the 



RIVAL RELIGIONISTS. 



more intelligent inhabitants of the post, the summer passed. No 
land was cleared ; no fields plowed ; no provision made for self- 
support by any but the priests. What work the artisans did on 
the fort was so ill done that it tumbled down even before Kirke 
came to blow it to pieces four years later. Nevertheless men were 
found to help the Jesuits to build their house on the St. Charles. 
As to the company, it cared not a whit for aught but its profits in 
the trade in peltries. 

Champlain before the season of 1626 had passed, carried 
out his plan of establishing a farm, under the Sieur Foucher, at 
Cap Tourmente, where cattle were to be housed and fattened 
on the native grass for the support of the fort. He enlarged 
the fort of St. Louis in the hope that ere long the King would 
send some soldiers to garrison it. He built two demi-bastions 
towards the river, on which he mounted two guns, and, being 
unable to blast the solid rock, he protected the exposed flank of 
the fort with wooden palisades and fascines. Life in the mean- 
time was stimulated by religious dissension. Father Noue came up 
from Tadousac with an awful story of how the crew of Emery's 
ship, after their commander had left, sang, despite his orders, 
the hymns of the heretic Clement Marot so loudly that even the, 
savages heard the impious sound upon the shore. Next month 
the good father accompanied Father Brebeuf to the land of the 
Hurons, where he would not be annoyed by any such profanity. 
But the very day the missionaries started on their long canoe jour- 
ney, further complaint reached Champlain from Tadousac of the 
disobedience of de Caen's Huguenot crew, who were charged now 
with assembling on their ships for public prayers. Aggravated as 
were their offences, Champlain did not dare to be too severe, for 
shortly afterwards he received a message from de la Ralde, the 
Admiral of the company's fleet, that pirates were trespassing on 
the company's trade in the lower St. Lawrence, and ordering 
him to despatch Emery in the Jesuit ship, the "Alouette," to his 
assistance. More serious news still, had he only been able 
to appreciate its significance, reached him, of the murder of five 
Dutch traders by a bancl of Mohawks, tliou.G^h the Dutch were 
the allies and friends of the Iroquois. So Emery de Caen de- 



178 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

parted on August 25th, leaving the colony rather short of sup- 
plies, to commence its hibernation. With de Caen went Pont- 
grave ; and it must have been with no little apprehension and re- 
gret that Champlain, parted already from his wife, and now los- 
ing his old comrade, saw the vessels of de Caen set sail. His only 
relief was in work. He had to establish in their new building the 
little farming colony of six men, one woman and a little girl, who 
were to take charge of the cattle at Cap Tourmente, and to get 
out lumber enough to keep the savages and carpenters occupied 
during the winter. Death meantime was busy. It carried off one 
of the Jesuit staff of workmen, and a little Indian girl, whom, 
however, Lalemant had the satisfaction of baptizing. If we are to 
credit Le Clercq, the Jesuits were disheartened this year by the 
fruitlessness of their labor among the Indians and the hopeless 
aspect of colonial affairs — so much so that, but for the inspiration 
infused into them by the Recollet monks, they would have aban- 
doned the mission. Their own chronicles do not express any such 
pusillanimous intention ; still priests, however saintly their char- 
acter, are but men, and, in the confidences of the refectory at the 
monasteries on the St. Charles, Jesuit and Recollet, despite their 
suspicion of one another, must have chatted many a time over the 
hopelessness of the task they had entered upon, which, to the high- 
ly educated priests would naturally be more repulsive than to the 
sandaled monks. 

Besides the nameless workman and the Indian girl, death 
carried off Hebert, a man worthy of being held in re- 
membrance as the first habitant in Canada who turned 
his hand industriously to agriculture, and raised enough from 
the soil to support his family. He was buried in the cemetery 
of the Recollet monastery, but his body was transferred more 
than half a century afterwards, in the presence of his daughter, 
Madame Couillard, to the new church of the Recollet Friars, 
where the English Cathedral now stands. Were his final rest- 
ing place known, a monument might very suitably be erected to 
commemorate the virtues of the first farmer in the St. Lawrence 
valley. 

The year 1627 was notable in the annals of the province for 



RUMORS OF WAR. 



179 



the breaking out of war with the Iroquois. The St. Law- 
rence Indians, relying on assistance from the Dutch, but in direct 
opposition to Champlain's advice and the protests of his brother- 
in-law, Boulle, whom he sent to the council at Three Rivers, broke 
the peace, and had a temporary success. At Champlain's personal 
solicitation, and that of Emery de Caen, who reached Quebec on 
the 9th of June, and proceeded up the river at once with Cham- 
plain to the rendezvous at Three Rivers, the victors consented not 
to torture and kill their three prisoners. The French had, never- 
theless, to bear the odium of the acts of their savage allies, and to 
pay the penalty of their reckless bravado by many a year of 
anxiety and the sacrifice of many an innocent life. 

It was with great pleasure that Champlain on his return to 
Quebec found Pontgrave at the habitation. The weather-beaten 
old sailor had come to Gaspe on a vessel of Honfleur, and thence, 
with his little grandson, had ascended the river in an open boat, 
suffering on the way agonies from the gout, but determined to 
obey de Caen's instructions, which were to hasten to the post as 
manager of the company's business affairs. He must have brought 
some forewarning of the quarrel brewing between England and 
France, which broke out in July of that year through the wanton 
and unprovoked attack on Rochelle by the English under Bucking- 
ham ; for we find that, when the Jesuit ship failed to arrive, with 
provisions for the mission and a crew of workmen, apprehension 
of its capture by the English was so strong, and dread of the 
future so rife, that Father Lalemant determined to ship all hands 
back to France, except Fathers Masse and de Noue, a brother and 
five workmen. As the Jesuits were not popular, they found it diffi- 
cult to secure passages. Neither de Caen nor even the Catholic cap- 
tain, de la Raldc, showed any desire to accommodate them. P^ather 
Noirot had quarrelled witii both at Tadousac, and they had re- 
venged themselves by interfering with the shipment of provisions 
from the lower port to the Jesuit establishment at Quebec. The 
tact and good humor of Father Lalemant seems, however, to have 
overcome all opposition, for in the end they were .q-ivcn passac^e on 
one of the Company's ships. With the Fathers who remained the 
company's store keeper at the habitation was not averse to sharing 



l80 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

his scanty stock, for he knew he would get in return more than he 
gave. This he undoubtedly succeeded in doing, for he exchanged 
ten kegs of biscuit for beaver skins, at the rate of seven skins per 
keg. The Jesuits had bought the skins at different times at one 
ecu apiece. In the long run, however, the beaver skins did not 
profit the company, as they ultimately fell into the hands of David 
Kirke. 

With gloomy forebodings, the settlement was thus compelled 
to face another dreary winter, short of provisions, and in peril 
of being attacked the following spring by an English fleet, 
instead of being cheered by the arrival of their countrymen, 
and by stores of good things from the mother country. More- 
over, the fear entertained by the Governor and his subjects of 
savage foes near home must have been even keener than his dread 
of foes from abroad who could at least be depended on to regard 
the usages of civilized warfare. The last ship had hardly left Que- 
bec before disquieting rumors reached the habitation of the Iro- 
quois being on the warpath in dangerous numbers. At this season 
the Algonquin Indians of the St. Lawrence gathered from far and 
near to catch and smoke eels near Quebec ; and Champlain had 
only too much reason to dread the spirit of unrest which their 
recent campaign had excited, not to speak of the resentment they 
doubtless felt at his unwillingness to join them in their aggression 
on the Iroquois confederacy. It may have been this feeling of dis- 
content, coupled with a previous grudge, which instigated the mur- 
der of two Frenchmen whom Champlain had sent up with cattle 
from Cap Tourmente. One of them was Henri, a servant of the 
widow Hebert; the other a man called Dumoulin. The two un- 
fortunates reached the Beauport Flats late in the afternoon, 
to find the tide too high to permit of their crossing. They 
tried to enter the hunting cabin of Mons. Giffard, afterward 
the first Seigneur of Beauport. Finding it locked, they lay 
down on their blankets and slept the sleep of death, for an 
Indian, mistaking one of them for Hebert's baker, against 
whom he had a grudge, tomahawked them both during the 
night. The murder was discovered the next day, and a sum- 
mons was sent to the monastery of the Recollets and to the Jes- 



DANGEROUS TEMPER OF THE INDIAN TRIBES. l8l 

uit house to attend a special meeting of council for devising meas- 
ures of defence and protection against an Indian rising. The 
situation was certainly critical. Champlain was short of arms, 
shorter still of ammunition, and already on reduced rations. He 
suspected that war had broken out with England. The English 
colonies on the seaboard, which might be expected to co-operate 
with their parent State, were showing signs of growth and ener- 
gy, and were already vastly more populous than his. He knew 
how rapidly news spread, and how shrewdly the calculating savage 
takes advantage either of enemy or friend in moments of diffi- 
culty. The miserable ^^lontagnais might therefore know more, 
through New England emissaries, than he did himself of what 
was passing in the world. His quondam Indian allies might, in 
fact, be leagued with the enemies of France. What course 
should he take? Should he temporize, or take the risk of a stern 
stand against the treacherous savages? He wisely adopted the 
latter course. He called on the chiefs of the Montagnais to de- 
liver up the murderer or murderers. At first they laid the crime 
to the charge of Iroquois marauders, and disclaimed all re- 
sponsibility. Refusing indignantly to accept such an explanation, 
Champlain arrested an Indian who had once threatened the life 
of a Frenchman. Subsequently he seems to have arrested an- 
other suspect. The third day a deputation left three children with 
him as hostages, but he warned them that henceforth his men 
would go armed, and when in the woods shoot down every Indian 
who did not satisfactorily answer the challenge. 

Fortunately the snow lay light that winter, and as moose hunt- 
ing was poor, the pinch of hunger began to be felt more acutely 
by the red man than even by the white. To propitiate Cham- 
plain a band of Indians crossed the river and begged for food, 
offering in return three young girls, to be sent, if he wished, 
to France. When the ships left there were altogether fifty- 
five souls in Champlain's government — men, women and chil- 
dren — of whom eighteen were carpenters and builders. Of this 
little band two had been murdered, but Champlain had accepted 
as hostages three boys ; and now three girls of hearty appetite 
were added. Champlain took Pontgrave, who was in charge of 



l82 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



the company's affairs and of its stores, into his counsel. 
They decided that it would be prudent to give the Indians 
what they could spare of their only abundant article of diet, 
peas, and to accept in return — their promises. Shortly after- 
wards the father of one of the girls fell ill, and was baptized, but 
baptism not restoring him to health, he insisted on being removed 
from the monastery to his old cabin and to his own people, 
where, with dancing and noisy incantations, the medicine men 
hastened his death. It was not an edifying or an encouraging 
result of the holy fathers' missionary labors, but they had al- 
ready learned, and regretfully acknowledged, when they called 
in the aid of the wealthy Jesuit, that conviction was best created 
in the Indian's mind by ministering to his stomach. 

The year 1628 was one of unbroken gloom. During the 
winter, by night and by day, apprehension of Indian rising 
haunted the feeble colony. Spring brought no relief. Expe- 
dition after expedition of the Montagnais left to fight the Iro- 
quois, but Champlain would not join them. May came and went; 
June followed; but no ships were even reported as coming to 
their relief. Their provisions were reduced to some spoiled bis- 
cuits and a small stock of peas and beans. Not only were they 
verging on famine, but they had not even a schooner in which 
to visit the Gulf and seek provisions and relief from the sailors 
of the season's fleet, at this time fishing below Gaspe. De la Ralde 
had neglected to send back their schooner with supplies in the pre- 
vious fall. Pontgrave could have taken command of it, but among 
the fifty-five who were actually at the fort of Quebec there were 
priests and carpenters and clerks, but no sailors. Nevertheless, the 
most indolent lent a hand in building a boat in which to send a 
crew for the larger craft at Tadousac. With the crew were to have 
been shipped as passengers as many of the inhabitants as were 
merely bread eaters. 

To aggravate their anxiety and suffering, superstition 
added imaginary terrors. The towers of the fort, badly built 
during Champlain's absence, fell on Sunday, July 9, but the 
fears of the people, stimulated by the friars, saw a supernatural 
portent in the accident. *'For," as Brother Sagard says, ''what 



THE ENEMY AT HAND. 



183 



reason could we assign for their falling when the weather was 
so perfectly calm, had not God, by their collapse, intended to 
foretell a disaster ? Only three years had elapsed since they were 
built. They did not therefore crumble through age, but the in- 
iquity of people whom God wills to chastise by the descent of 
the English was the cause of the catastrophe." 

While the boat was building Champlain and Pontgrave were 
using every argument to induce Couillard, Hebert's son-in-law, 
the only active man in the community, first to caulk and then 
to sail it. He refused, but, as things turned out, it made little dif- 
ference, for on the very day the towers fell a messenger came up 
by land from Cap Tourmente, to say that an Indian lad had 
reached the farm with the news of the arrival at Tadousac of a 
fleet of ships under the command of a certain Captain IMichel of 
Dieppe, a renegade Frenchman. Champlain tried to persuade 
himself that, though the fleet was too large to be the company's, 
de Caen's fleet might have been joined by fishermen, and that per- 
haps the strange captain was of the number. The native who 
brought the tidings to the farm arrived in his canoe shortly after- 
wards, and on closer interrogation, created grave suspicion in 
Champlain's mind that the fleet was an English one. As soon as 
this disquieting news reached the habitation, Father Joseph left 
the monastery at once with two Indians to look after his little flock 
at Cap Tourmente, where they had already built a little chapel; 
but they had not compassed half the journey before they were met 
by two canoes carrying the Sieur Fouchcr from that place, more 
frightened than hurt. He was fleeing from the English, with a 
woman and child. Champlain meanwhile had taken measures to 
secure information. There was a Greek at the habitation willing 
to assume the disguise of an Indian and to descend the river as a 
spy. Before reaching the end of the island he also met the fugi- 
tives. There was therefore no longer any doubt of the enemy's 
being at hand. In fact, a schooner with twenty men, piloted by a 
Frenchman, had been dispatched from Kirke's fleet at Tadousac to 
destroy the farm building and kill the stock at Cap Tourmente. 
They had done it most effectually, burning the buildings, and 
killing the whole herd of forty cattle. Kirkc wisely judged that, 



184 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

by cutting off Champlain's total supply of meat, he was com- 
pelling him to capitulate sooner or later. At the same time he 
replenished his own commissary. Kirke's lieutenant expected to 
surprise the farm, for his men landed at daylight, and, when dis- 
covered, pretended they were friends. Foucher was already on 
the alert. No opposition, however, was made by the farm hands, 
and no casualties occurred, Sieur Foucher himself managing to 
escape with no more serious injury than a few bruises. 

Champlain at once set himself to strengthen the defenses of 
the habitation and the fort, and the RecoUet friars began to 
deliberate how best they could escape capture and continue their 
mission. The surest means seemed to be to accompany the 
Huron hunters to their distant lodges on the shores of the Georg- 
ian Bay, whither Kirke and his men could certainly not follow. 
So Father Germain and a Brother started on the journey, but meet- 
ing a Jesuit Father, Joseph de la Noue, who was returning to Que- 
bec just as they received news of the departure of Kirke 
and his English pirates, as they branded them, from Tadousac, 
they decided to let the Hurons proceed alone, and to return to their 
monastery, a course which was fruitful of casuistical explanation 
by the faithful, and of irreverent gossip among the ungodly of 
Quebec. 

On the afternoon of the day following the attack on Cap 
Tourmente, a canoe was paddled up the St. Charles with such 
hesitation that the lookout on the fort supposed it to be manned 
by enemies ignorant of the locality, and Champlain accordingly 
sent some arquebusiers through the woods to intercept them. 
The supposition was wrong, for it contained three of the prisoners 
taken by Kirke's men at the farm, with some Basque sailors, whom 
Kirke's fleet had captured in the river. They were the bearers of 
a demand for the surrender of the place. The demand and Cham- 
plain's reply are models of courteous phraseology. Utterly incap- 
able of resistance as he was, it was courageous on Champlain's 
part to send so peremptory a refusal. He did so because he expect- 
ed day by day assistance from France, feeling sure that the 
powerful and determined minister who ruled the King of France, 
the Queen mother and the nation, would not leave him helpless in 



A BATTLE IN THE GULF. 



i8s 



such an hour of peril. It was assurance, not mere conjecture, on 
Kirke's part that a reheving force was at hand which determined 
him to sail back in order to meet the approaching enemy, rather 
than forward to attack a weak post, defended by a handful of 
helpless and disheartened traders. That such was the con- 
dition of the post he had doubtless learned, both from the 
Indians, who at the time were irritated against Champlain, 
and from the company's competitors in the lower river, who 
were always ready to deal a blow at the monopoly. He 
also knew that de Roquemont was at Gaspe and would follow him 
up the river, and that, if he proceeded, he would be hemmed in 
between the fort of Quebec, which might offer some resistance, 
and the French ships. Like a brave sailor, therefore, he elected to 
attack the approaching fleet, which consisted of the same number 
of ships as he himself commanded. If he defeated de Roque- 
mont, Champlain would be at his mercy. If defeated, he would 
stand a better chance of retreat in the open Gulf than in a narrow, 
dangerous river, with the navigation of which he was imperfectly 
acquainted. The event justified his decision. De Roquemont, 
learning from the Indians at Gaspe that an English fleet was at 
Tadousac, despatched a shallop with ten men under Desdames, the 
clerk of the new company. They were instructed to elude the 
English, if possible, ascertain their strength and position, land 
a signal party at the Island of St. Bernard, so as to communi- 
cate with his fleet when it hove in sight, and push forward to 
warn Champlain of his approach. 

De Roquemont had hardly commenced to cVeep up the 
river before the English were seen to be bearing down upon 
him. His first duty was to save his cargo and relieve the fam- 
ishing post at Quebec. He therefore attempted to escape, but 
Kirke's ships were superior to his in speed. A battle ensued which 
lasted fifteen hours, in which 1,200 shots were fired and two 
Frenchmen were killed. The battle only ceased witli exhaustion of 
the Frenchman's ammunition. His ships all fell a prey to the 
Englisli commander, who, however, accorded honorable terms 
of capitulation. There were on De Roquemont's sliips two 
Jesuit priests and two Recollct Friars to recruit the con- 



i86 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



siderable body of clergy already in the colony, and a number of 
workmen with their wives and children, who were being sent 
oi;t by the company of the One Hundred Associates, which had 
in this inauspicious spring replaced de Caen's commercial part- 
nership. When the fight was impending, their fellow passengers-, 
knowing the dislike which Kirke's crew bore to the members of 
the ecclesiastical profession, obliged the four priests to adopt a 
lay costume. But their apprehensions were groundless. Kirke, 
whatever else he was, was a gentleman. The crews and pas- 
sengers of low estate were sent in two of the ships to France. 
The captain, the Jesuits, and men of means were carried to 
England, where they were retained until the stipulated ransoms 
were paid. The RecoUet Friars, and certain poor gentle folk of no 
prospective pecuniary value, were permitted to return to France in 
one of the fishing sloops, which were subsequently found at St. 
Pierre, ready to sail with their cargoes of dry cod. With so much 
ransom to be collected, with the cargoes of De Requemont's four 
ships to be disposed of, and with the additional prizes taken at St. 
Pierre to be safely ferried across the ocean, Kirke prudently de- 
cided to leave Champlain and his miserable compatriots free to 
eat up the rest of their peas, and be starved into submission on his 
return in the following spring. 

In course of time the shallop with Desdames and the eleven 
men reached Quebec. He told of the abolition of the old com- 
pany and the creation of a new. But he was the bearer of no 
official communications, from either de Roquemont or the home 
authorities. Father Lalemant, however, wrote Champlain, prom- 
ising to see him soon, if the English, who were barring the way, 
would permit. But Desdames' arrival simply served to increase 
the misery of the little settlement — not only by the evil news he 
brought — ^but because he and his people added so many more 
mouths to consume the scanty rations, now reduced to seven 
ounces of peas per day per man. The munitions of war were also 
not on a scale which permitted Champlain to challenge Kirke, con- 
sisting, as they did, of only fifty pounds of powder and a few 
matchlocks. 

As soon as the canoes had descended the river with Kirke's 



THE COLONY IN EXTREMITIES. 



187 



envoy, a deputation was sent to survey the damage done at Cap 
Tourmente. The marauders had killed all the cattle but one cow, 
which had made its escape, but the carcases of several others, 
which had not been burnt or carried away by Kirke's men, were 
found. All the buildings were demolished, and the sacred ves- 
sels of the little chapel had either been stolen or destroyed. Cham- 
plain would have been wiser had he, during the previous two years, 
compelled his idle crew of trappers and traders to clear a 
tract of land on the height near Quebec for the pasturage of 
his cattle, instead of leaving so valuable a depot immediately in 
the track of an enemy ascending the river. His experience of the 
far reaching arm of the English marauders under Argall of Vir- 
ginia should have warned him of the fate which might at any 
moment overtake his defenseless settlement at Cap Tourmente. 

The summer and autumn wore away without news. No ships 
came from France with the much needed relief, and neither did 
the dreaded English fleet heave in sight. Champlain pathetically 
says, "While we were impatiently awaiting tidings of the battle 
we were doling out our small resources of peas. Most of our 
men were showing signs of increased debility. Even our stock 
of salt was running short. To reduce the peas to meal and thus 
make them more palatable and nutritious, I first thought of 
extemporizing a wooden mortar, but finally decided to try and 
make a hand-mill. Our blacksmith found a spindle and mill 
stones, and the carpenter undertook to mount them. Thus ne- 
cessity compelled us to do what for twenty years had seemed 
impossible. Ever>'one brought his allowance of peas, and it was 
returned to him as flour. When the eel season arrived, the fish 
relieved our wants. The Indians are expert fishermen, but were 
only willing to give us a few, and for these they made us pay 
right dearly. The men bartered even their clothes for eels, and 
the store secured 1,200 of the slimy creatures in exchange for 
fresh beaver skins, the price demanded being one skin for ten 
eels. Great hopes had been entertained of the grain products 
of Hebert's farm, but when the harvest was garnered, all that 
could be spared was nine and a half ounces a week of barley, 
peas and Indian meal— a scanty allowance for so many people." 



1 88 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

Chomina, a friendly Indian, brought them in some venison 
when the winter was far advanced and the snow lay deep. Cham- 
plain sent some of his own men hunting. They were successful, 
but the greedy fellows ate so much of the deer they killed that 
not more than twenty pounds reached the habitation. 

To keep up the spirits of the men, Champlain set about build- 
ing a flour mill to be run by waterpower, though there was nothing 
to grind. Then an old boat was repaired, to be used in the 
last extremity in seeking relief from their misery, and the never- 
ending task of cutting firewood then, as now, occupied a large 
share of the time of the people. While thus distracting the 
thoughts of his men from the perilous situation, he himself was 
cogitating endless schemes for saving them from the starvation 
which seemed imminent, unless either their countrymen or the 
enemy came to their rescue. If they could sustain life 
until autumn, he believed they could garner enough food 
to keep them during another winter. One plan which he 
seems to have seriously contemplated for replenishing their 
empty storehouse was, under the guidance of the Montagnais 
Indians, to attack a Mohawk village and carry off the stock of 
maize which he knew to be stored in plenty in their lodges. An- 
other scheme was to seek the friendship and the assistance of the 
Abenakis, who were represented as being rich in stores of grain 
and anxious for his alHance and aid against the Iroquois. 
To reconnoitre the Iroquois country he sent off a trustworthy 
man on May i6th. 

But, as in the wider world, so in this group of unfortunate 
exiles, with famine staring them in the face, and cut off from all 
knowledge of what was befalling their countrymen and their 
kinsmen, misery acted as an excuse for marrying and giving in 
marriage, rather than as a deterrent, for on the very day Cham- 
plain's emissary and spy left for the Iroquois country, the widow 
Hebert consoled herself for the loss of her distinguished and 
enterprising first husband by marrying Guillaume Hubou with 
more than customary ceremonial. Only under the Hebert roof 
was there still enough to eat, and the marriage feast, however 
simple, must to the hungry crowd have been a sumptuous ban- 



DESPERATE MEASURES. 



189 



quet, for the public stock of peas was running so short that it 
would be exhausted by the end of the month. 

Another event marked the i6th of May. While one canoe 
went up the river towards the Iroquois country, another was 
despatched down the river to watch for friends and warn the 
Governor of the approach of foes. The emissaries were supplied 
with a roundrobin to all illicit traders, promising them, not only 
exemption from punishment, but better pay in peltries for their 
provisions than the Indians would give, if they would but treat 
with the company. Not content with one scouting party, he sent 
the company's chief clerk, Desmoulins, in the shallop with six 
sailors on the following day to scour the river for assistance, and 
with orders not to give up the search until July 10, which was the 
latest date when a trader might be expected to enter the Gulf. 

Desmoulins warned him that if the sailors under his command 
reached a homeward bound ship, his authority would be pow- 
erless to restrain them. Nevertheless they were despatched, for, 
happen what might, their departure left so many less to feed, and 
perhaps they might find some salt at Gaspe or on the Isle de 
Bonaventure, with which to cure the cod they might by good 
fortune catch. Not until three days after he had despatched 
Desmoulins did he learn from twenty Indians, coming from be- 
low on their way to fight the Iroquois, of the defeat of de Roque- 
mont ten months before, and of the fate of his crew and pas- 
sengers. The knowledge of the disaster, he saw at once, must 
lower the prestige of the French in the eyes of the Indians, and 
make their situation still more critical. 

To add to his embarrassment, he still held as prisoners the 
Indians suspected of killing the two Frenchmen on the Beau- 
port Flats, eighteen months previously. He had no positive evi- 
dence of their guilt, and he had postponed the trial, not caring to 
risk the consequences of a decision until the fleet with the com- 
pany's agent should arrive. r)nc season had passed, and no ship 
had sailed into the harbor. Now another was well advanced, and 
still the company's ship did not arrive. Old Chomina pleaded for 
the suspected prisoners, and promised to give bail for their ap- 
pearance when the trial came. Champlain wisely agreed to 



190 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

liberate the unfortunate suspects, who were dying of want and 
confinement, and who were so feeble that the friends of one of 
'them had to carry him out of his prison house. In doing so, how- 
ever, he made it a condition that they should be retained by the 
Recollet Friars as hostages. 

The Abenaki Indians were persuaded to barter their Indian 
com for goods, and to provide eight canoes to convey a party to be 
sent to negotiate with them. Taught by experience, Champlain 
stipulated that, when the fishing season should come round, the 
Indians would not demand an unreasonable price for their eels. 
Matters were becoming desperate. The schooner that had been re- 
paired during the winter was ready for sea. Pine trees had 
been tapped for tar, and seals killed on Cap Tourmente had yielded 
oil. The vessel was therefore calked, and poor old, gouty 
Pontgrave was half forced and half persuaded to take com- 
mand and carry thirty of the hungry colonists to France. Two 
years before he had suffered agony in ascending the river from 
Gaspe in an open boat, and the two years of privation and anxiety 
which followed had not encouraged him to volunteer to command 
a crazy craft and a helpless crew on a still more trying expedition. 

He consented, nevertheless, and decided to leave his grandson, 
Du Marais, in his place, and to carry home a cargo of 1,000 beaver 
skins. He insisted, however, that before sailing his commission 
from de Caen should be read publicly after mass, believing that 
such publicity would give him a stronger claim on his employers 
for arrears of salary. To this Champlain consented, but he at the 
same time read his own commission from the King and the 
Viceroy, which clearly established his supreme authority in the 
colony. Pontgrave was deeply ofifended. On further discussion, 
it transpired that Pontgrave was unwilling to risk a trans-Atlan- 
tic voyage in the extemporized vessel, and had determined, if he 
sailed, to return to Quebec unless he could find in the Gulf a safer 
craft to which to transfer crew and cargo. To this Champlain was 
vehemently opposed, his supreme motive being to reduce the num- 
ber of mouths. Pontgrave having in the end positively declined to 
sail, Champlain commissioned his brother-in-law, Boulle, to com- 
mand the schooner. 



A STARVING SETTLEMENT. 



191 



All who could be spared went into the woods to dig roots, 
wherewith to provision the ship. Then Champlain assembled 
those who were to sail with Boulle. He desired to know 
how many would stop at Gaspe and repair the Jesuits' build- 
ing which had been burned by Kirke, remaining there with 
the Indians to fish for sustenance ; and how many would risk 
the danger of the trans-Atlantic voyage. Most of them elected 
to be landed at Gaspe. On the 26th of June they started, Boulle, 
Desdames, the company's head clerk, and the fugitives, on their 
dangerous voyage, in a smaller and worse equipped ship than any 
of Columbus' caravels. Sagard gives the tonnage of "Le Coquin" 
at twelve to fourteen — Champlain, in his deposition before Sir H. 
Martin, at six or seven tons. Fortunately they were captured 
by Kirke before a worse fate befell them. 

More than one-third of the population had left with Boulle's 
crew. Those that remained applied themselves to fighting the 
famine. Some planted turnips and other roots, and hoped that 
they might live to dig them up. Others, to relieve their immedi- 
ate necessity, gathered wild fruits and roots. Others went fish- 
ing, but with scant success, as they lacked both hooks and lines. 
Hunt they dare not, as the stock of powder was reduced to thirty 
or forty pounds, and, damaged as it was by damp, had to be re- 
served for defence. Sagard says that the root from which they 
derived most nourishment was that of the Solomon seal, and that 
it had the additional virtue of being a not unpalatable food when 
dried, ground and baked into bread. We are asked to believe, 
moreover, that it served as a charm against piles when carried as 
a scapular on the breast. 

To vary the diet they made a soup of the roots, to which was 
added barley, bran, and acorns, the latter being previouslv boiled 
with ashes to extract the bitterness. Dried fish was a luxurv, 
when added to the nauseous pottage, but there was no salt to 
flavor it. As a warning of the approach of the Englisli. another 
tower of the fort fell, as on the previous year. To dispel the super- 
stitious fears of the garrison, Champlain proceeded at once to 
rebuild it. 

The annual coming of the Hurons was awaited with mixed 



192 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

feelings of pleasure and anxiety. Some twenty of the French 
were likely to return with them, but there was nothing for them 
to eat. On the other hand, the Hurons might have a supply of 
grain for barter. To ascertain this Champlain entrusted Cho- 
mina, his faithful Montagnais, with cutlery and other merchan- 
dise, and sent him to intercept the approaching canoes, and barter 
his goods for what food he could induce them to part with. In 
vain was the request made, for when on July 17 the Hurons and 
Frenchmen arrived, the savages declared that they had hardly 
food enough for their own wants. Father Brebeuf was of the 
party, and though he offered tempting prices, only three small 
sacks of Indian meal could be obtained. 

Ouagabimat Chomina's brother, who afterwards became a 
convert, was sent in the other direction to the Etchemins and 
even to the English settlement to beg for food; but the rivers 
were low, and he and his French comrades speedily re- 
turned. 

A gleam of pleasurable anticipation was shed over the dreary 
prospect by the return of the emissary sent to the Abenakis. He 
told of a friendly people, of villages teeming with plenty, where 
the hungry Frenchmen would be hospitably received, and he con- 
veyed a promise that a great chief would follow with canoes 
laden with Indian corn. But it was hope only, no tangible relief, 
that he brought back, and the whole population had long been 
living on hope, or little else than hope. 

Relief came at last with the news brought by a Montagnais of 
the near approach of the English fleet, at a moment when, from 
the lateness of the season, hope of escape, even by such unwelcome 
means, had died away. Champlain at the time was alone in the 
Fort. Every able-bodied man and woman was absent, some fish- 
ing, some gathering roots. Even his body servant and the two 
little Indian girls, Hope and Charity — for Faith had returned 
to her own people — were in the woods. About ten in the 
morning they commenced to hurry back. His servant had 
seen the fleet. It was only a league below the city, hidden 
by Point Levis. He and the little Indian girls had gathered 
four bags of roots, but what was that wherewith to provision 



ARRIVAL OF KIRKE'S FLEET. 



the garrison and maintain a siege? The ominous news had 
reached the Franciscan ^Monastery and the Jesuit House, and 
the Fathers and Monks hastened to the habitation to place 
their services and their counsel at the disposal of the Gov- 
ernor. It was decided to make at least a show of resistance, 
but to surrender without a shot if fair terms were offered. 

Soon the English fleet of three sails, the ''Flibot," of one 
hundred tons and ten guns, and two bateaux or transports, each 
of one hundred tons and six guns, the whole manned by about 
150 men, rounded the point. Then a boat flying a white flag 
was seen steering for the habitation. In response, a white flag 
was run up on the Fort. "An English gentleman," as Champlain 
is careful to explain, carried the summons to surrender from 
Louis and Thomas Kirke, as agents for their brother David, who 
was in command of the English fleet. Champlain admits that 
every form of courtesy was observed by his English captors. He 
reflects on the opposite treatment his men received from the 
renegade Frenchman, who had assisted and piloted the English 
fleet. He is a little puzzled to account for the conduct of the 
English visitors, which was so different from the popular esti- 
mate of their character. He explains it by the strain of French 
blood in the veins of the "Quers," as he always called the Kirkes ; 
Louis Quer was always courteous, because a Frenchman by na- 
ture, and a lover of France, his mother having been a French 
woman of Dieppe. As if this explanation of the anomaly of a 
Scotchman being a gentleman were not sufficient, Champlain fur- 
ther indulges in the supposition that the courtesy was assumed 
in order to induce the French to remain, and thus avoid the neces- 
sity of replacing them with Englishmen, against whom Cham- 
plain supposes Kirke had a positive repugnance. The Kirkes 
must certainly, from whatever sources they inherited their fine 
feeling, have possessed it to an eminent degree, for they seem to 
have forgotten, or forgiven, the obloquy cast upon them in Paris 
the previous winter, when tlicy were Inirnt in effigy on the receipt 
in France of the news of the defeat of dc Roquemont's fleet. 

The negotiations between Champlain and tlie brotlicrs were 
sufficiently protracted to save the honor of tlie noble man thus 



194 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

thrown helpless on their mercy, and avoid the appearance of a 
precipitate capitulation. The letter which the English sailor carried 
to the unfortunate governor was formulated in as generous terms 
as a challenge to surrender could well be. The messenger could 
not speak French, and no one at the habitation could speak Eng- 
lish, but as Father Joseph and the envoy could converse in Latin, 
the explanations on both sides were made in that scholarly 
language. Poor Champlain acknowledged in writing the 
receipt of the summons to surrender, and asked for time to 
answer, but warned the Kirkes not to approach within gunshot 
of the Fort, nor to set foot on land pending negotiations, which 
he promised should not be protracted beyond the following day. 
Father Joseph also went on board as Champlain's emissary to 
confer verbally, and to inquire why, in a time of peace, which 
Kirke's emissary admitted to exist, they were attacked. The 
answer was vague, as such answers usually are, when it is a 
case of force majeure. Kirke doubtless considered that all due 
allowance for the susceptibility of his foe had been made, when 
he warned Father Joseph that an answer must be given the 
same evening. He therefore sent the messenger back before dark 
for the Governor's decision. It was already prepared. Cham- 
plain demanded that the Kirkes should produce their commission 
from the British King, that his men should retain their arms, 
and that all who wished to leave, whether laymen or Church- 
men, Friars or Jesuits, should be transported to France. He 
especially required that these conditions apply to his little Indian 
girls — Hope and Charity. No violence was to be shown any 
one, layman or priest, to those who might surrender at the fort 
or to his brother-in-law, Boulle and the crew and passengers 
under his command, who had been captured in the Gulf. Pro- 
visions were to be supplied to those who elected to return to 
France, and such should be allowed to transport their private 
holdings of skins and other property. They were to be provided 
with a ship of sufficient size to carry them to France within three 
days of their arrival in Tadousac. 

Louis and Thomas Kirke promptly replied that their brother's 
commission was in due form, and would be exhibited when they 



CAPITULATION OF QUEBEC. 



had reached Tadousac ; that they could not supply a separate 
ship for the transportation of Champlain and his colonists to 
France, but would guarantee their safe passage to England, and 
thence to France, a safer passage than if they had to defend 
themselves against another hostile English fleet which might 
intercept them. They agreed to allow the Frenchmen of quality 
to retain their arms, personal property and private stock of furs, 
but limited the wardrobe of the soldiers to one beaver skin coat 
apiece. They declined to take the two little Indian girls. 

The terms being accepted, the fleet approached on the 20th, and 
the English force of 150 men landed. Then Champlain pleaded 
in person, and not in vain, to Louis Kirke for his two Indian 
girls, to whom he had become attached through two years of 
fatherly care and tutelage. Any misapprehension as to the re- 
lation of the pure-hearted, single-minded commander to his 
charge was quickly dispelled. But on the representation of the 
renegade interpreter, Marsolet, at Tadousac, that the Indians 
would resent the removal of the girls to France, now that the 
French no longer held the Fort, David Kirke decided to send 
them back to Quebec, where they were placed under the 
charge of the wife of Couillard. 

Champlain requested that an armed force be detailed to protect 
the property of the Recollet Fathers and the Jesuit Priests, and 
the houses of Madame Hubou and her son-in-law Couillard. Then 
the keys of the habitation and the company's stores were delivered 
up, and the stock of goods was handed over by the clerks Cor- 
neille and Olivier, the company's chief factor, old Pontgrave, 
being saved the humiliation of making the surrender in person 
by an attack of gout. 

Kirke put the stores in charge of one Le Baillif, a former clerk 
of d6 Caen, whom Champlain accuses of appropriating from 3.000 
to 4,000 beaver skins, and wliom he places in the class of un- 
utterable scoundrels, with Eticnne Brule. Champigny, an old 
Huron interpreter. Nicholas Marsolet, who had served as inter- 
preter with the Montacrnnis. and Pierre Pay. all Frenchmen, who 
had been captured with Bonlle in the ship near Gaspe. and had 
been compelled to pilot Kirke's fleet up the river, which they had 



196 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



done so skilfully as to outsail Emery de Caen, who had the start 
of them. 

Louis Kirke absolutely refused, until they sailed, to allow 
Champlain to vacate the Fort or abandon his own quarters, though 
as in duty bound, he nominally took possession. It must have been 
a pretty scene to watch these two gentlemen, vying with one 
another to mitigate the embarrassment of the one and the grief 
of the other, and to smooth over the asperity which their hostile 
relations might naturally create. "Louis Kirke plodded up the 
hill," Champlain tells us, ''to take possession of the fort. I wished 
to surrender to him my quarters, but he persistently refused to 
allow me to leave them until I should leave Quebec. In this and 
in every way he showed me every courtesy imagination could 
conceive of. I begged permission that mass be celebrated, and 
this request he also granted to our party. I also begged that he 
give me an inventory and a certificate of all the effects seized 
with the habitation, and this he gladly accorded me." This in- 
ventory appeared again and again in subsequent law proceed- 
ings. It tells a woeful tale of the deplorable neglect to which 
the old company exposed its servants, and the disgraceful risk 
the government was selfishly willing to allow its subjects to 
run, isolated as they were in the wilderness, surrounded by sav- 
ages, and open to attack by an energetic, ever watchful 
enemy, like England. The list exhibits the total armament with 
which Champlain, with all his high-sounding titles, was ex- 
pected to defend himself and New France : Four brass 
pieces, weighing about 150 pounds each; i brass piece, weigh- 
ing about 80 pounds; 15 iron boxes; 2 small iron pieces of ord- 
nance, about 800 weight each ; 6 murderers ; i small iron piece 
of ordnance of 80 pounds weight; 45 small iron bullets for the 
brass pieces ; 6 iron bullets ; 26 brass pieces, weighing 3 pounds 
each ; 40 pounds of powder belonging to Mons. de Caen of Diep- 
pe; 30 pounds of metal belonging to the French King; 13 whole 
and I broken musket; i arquebus; i trap; 2 large arquebuses, 
6 feet to 7 feet in length, belonging to the King; 2 other arque- 
buses; 10 halberts; 12 pikes belonging to the King; 5,000 to 
6,000 lead bullets ; some pigs of lead ; 60 cuirasses, two of them 



THE ENGLISH FLAG RAISED. 



197 



complete and pistol proof ; 2 brass petards, weighing 800 pounds ; 
carpenters' tools, etc, ; a wind-mill, a hand-mill and some utensils. 

In his deposition before Sir Henry Alartin in the November 
following, Champlain besides enumerating substantially the above 
articles, believes that there were in the company's store 2,500 to 
3,000 beaver skins, some boxes of knives and some iron 
shafts (arrow heads). Kirke, in his deposition, gives the num- 
ber of beaver skins as only 1,713. But of provisions, Cham- 
plain admits that there were none. He says "at the time of 
taking of the said fort or habitation, the men in the same had 
been living by the space of about two months on nothing but 
roots." Two of the Recollet Friars offered to try and escape 
with the Indian Chomina and thus, far from the reach of the 
English, retain their hold on the mission. Father Le Caron was 
favorable to the scheme, but Champlain opposed it. He 
may have feared political complications, or doubted the constan- 
cy of the good friars, having a vivid recollection of their holy 
intention and faulty fulfillment in a similar crisis the year before. 
Had the friars carried out their proposal, it would have been 
more difficult for the Jesuits to supplant them on the restoration 
of the colony to the French rule. 

These preliminaries accomplished, the English ensign waSv 
hoisted on the fort on Sunday, the 22nd of July, and saluted by \ 
a salvo from the fleet and by the firing of the little guns on the \ 
fort itself and the habitation. On the following day Thomas and 
Louis Kirke visited the Recollet Monastery and the House of the 
Jesuit Fathers. They accepted the offer of some religious paint- 
ings, and the Protestant minister did not refuse the gift of some 
of the good fathers' Ijooks. Amid such amenities the sor- 
rowful day passed. By the 24th all arrangements had been 
completed for the transportation of those who chose to leave. 
The articles of capitulation having been signed, Champlain pa- 
thetically admits that every day's delay seemed a month ; and 
therefore he and his little Indian girls were allowed to embark 
on board the three boats, and proceed with Captain Thomas 
Kirke to Tadousac. 

While Champlain finds difficulty in accounting for the cour- 



198 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

tesy of his captors, he roundly abuses Marsolet and other rene- 
gade countrymen, whom he accuses of robbing the company's 
store of its cash and the chapel of some holy ornaments, though 
they professed to be Catholics. Sagard, on the other hand, de- 
scribes how the clergy hid their vestments and principal church or- 
naments. But there is often in these defamatory passages of the 
edition of 1632 a false ring, unlike the calm candor of his earlier 
narrative, that excites suspicion that, either his own mind was 
under extraneous influence when writing, or that the manuscript, 
as already suggested, was revised by others. 

It is not stated how many, or who they were, that elected to 
remain in Canada. It would seem that Kirke was willing that 
as many as could should stay, but he especially urged Madame 
Hebert and her son-in-law, Couillard, as well as the mem- 
bers of religious orders, to remain and reap their harvests. He 
even removed the restrictions to trade with the Indians, which 
had been so great a grievance under the company's rule. Nicholas 
Blundell, in his deposition made in the following November, 
states that all the people of the said fort and habitation, except 
sixteen, were sent away — some to go to France, and the rest to 
be distributed among the savages in the country. The Abbe 
Laverdiere, in his notes, computes, from references made by 
Champlain and from entries in the Registre de Notre Dame de 
Quebec, that not less than twenty-one, or about one-quarter of 
the population — and that the best element of the whole — remained 
in Canada. The famiHes of Hebert, Couillard, Abraham Martin, 
whose name has been perpetuated in that of the famous battle 
field, together with Pierre de Tosles and Nicolas Perrot, probably 
remained, as the seed from which sprang the sturdy French-Can- 
adian race. 

Champlain was not fated to reach even Tadousac without fur- 
ther adventure. Kirke's ships sighted a French sail in the river. 
It proved to be Emery de Caen's ship carrying stores to the 
needy garrison in Quebec and news of the peace. They neverthe- 
less joined battle, and de Caen, overmatched, struck his flag, 
after a close hand to hand engagement. Sagard claims the vic- 
tory was obtained by the refusal of the Huguenots in de Caen's 



THE RETURN TO FRANCE. 



199 



ship to fight against their fellow-reHgionists ; but while Sagard's 
statement of what he actually witnessed carries conviction of 
veracity, the stories he relates at second-hand convey a different 
impression. The two ships were not ill-matched, but when Kirke's 
two schooners came to his assistance, de Caen had to surrender. 

It was the 9th of September before Pontgrave, the priests, and 
the principal detachment of those who were to leave, embarked for 
Tadousac. It would seem that the priests were ultimately given 
no option in the matter. Had the result of the engagement between 
Thomas Kirke and de Caen been different, de Caen, with the as- 
sistance of those still in Quebec, deprived of arms as they were, 
might have recovered the post. But during the interval no resist- 
ance was made to the English occupation. The time was occupied 
by Louis Kirke in making preparations for his own safety, and for 
transporting to Tadousac those who were to leave ; while the latter 
were busy making the best disposal they could of their own 
property. The RecoUet Friars, confident of their return, hid 
in the woods or buried such of their valuables as would 
not suffer from exposure, and packing their vestments in a leather 
trunk deposited them with some trustworthy guardian. Cham- 
plain was the only compulsory emigrant allowed to take all his 
personal effects with him. But, until they sailed, the priests were 
permitted to say mass daily, Louis Kirke even supplying them 
with wine from his stores, with which to celebrate the sacrament. 
His liberahty indeed excited doubt in the priestly mind as to the 
sincerity of his reformed convictions. They probably did not ap- 
preciate the wide difference in temper and creed bert:ween a 
French Huguenot and an English Puritan, or even churchman, 
of the reign of Charles the First. Before leaving the St. Law- 
rence David Kirke himself made a flying trip from Tadousac to 
Quebec, and assured those who remained of fair, liberal treat- 
ment, and promised them that business would be conducted with 
more activity, and on more liberal terms, than heretofore. 

Thus ended the first serious attempt at French colonization. 
For twenty-one years the experiment had lasted of trying to build 
up a colony on tlic basis of a narrow and exclusive national 
policy, through the a^^ency of a commercial company. The State 



200 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

desired to see the valley of the St. Lawrence inhabited, but shrank 
from entrusting power to any company which would encourage indi- 
vidual initiative. The Church strove to convert the savages, and 
would gladly have peopled the great waste with industrious French- 
men; but its principles compelled it to exclude the most enter- 
prising of the French population, the Huguenots. The trad- 
ing companies, even if their interests had induced them to pro- 
mote immigration, which was not the case, could offer but scanty 
encouragement to an enterprising merchant or to a laborer. 
Neither could engage in trade without infringing on the com- 
pany's exclusive privileges. A man could not take up land — al- 
though a whole continent lay before him unoccupied — without a 
special grant from the Crown. He could not follow his primitive 
instincts and join a roving Indian band without falling under the 
stricture of the government. He dare not indulge in any freedom 
of religious action or speech, without bringing down upon himself 
the severest censure of the clergy, who composed a vigilant police 
force, consisting of about one-tenth of the total white population. 
It is not, therefore, to be wondered at that, after twenty-one years 
of such adverse conditions, the colony, including the priests, num- 
bered somewhat less than one hundred souls ; that only an acre and 
a half of land was under cultivation, and that draft oxen and a 
plow had been imported by one inhabitant only, Louis Guillaume 
Couillard, the son-in-law and one of the heirs of Louis He- 
bert. Let it be noted that this does not include the land 
cultivated by the Recollets and the Jesuits. Champlain says, 'The 
Jesuits had land enough under cultivation to support themselves 
and the twelve servants, and no more ; whereas the Recollets had 
four or five acres under cultivation." But Champlain, or per- 
haps his editor, implies that during the previous year the friars 
were partial in the distribution of their surplus. Champlain 
says that there were fifty-five to sixty people employed by the 
company, but this estimate did not include the women and chil- 
dren, and priests. Adding to the sixty employees five women, 
eight children, four Recollet friars and four Jesuit priests, we 
have eighty-one ; and allowing that there were twenty in the Huron 
country, the total is about one hundred, as stated by Champlain. 



CHAPTER IX. 



The Company of One Hundred Associates, and Quebec 
from 1629 to J 632, Under the Kirkes. 

During the two whole years Champlain was shut up in 
Quebec prior to its capture, he received no official communi- 
cation from the King or the Viceroy, or even from the company'^ 
head ofHce. Desdames, the new company's head clerk, whom de 
Roquemont in 1628 had sent with eleven men to reconnoitre, and 
who had eluded Kirke's fleet, brought him a letter from his 
friend, Father Lalemant. This told him of the breaking out of 
war ; of the dissolution of the old company ; of the formation of 
that of the One Hundred Associates, and of the masterful man- 
agement of public afifairs by the haughty Cardinal. Much of 
even this news was more than a year old. 

In very truth, while he had been doing his best merely to keep 
alive the little band of Frenchmen struggling with adversity on 
the St. Lawrence, events were occurring which were to de- 
termine definitely and permanently the character of the future 
colony and the complexion of its government. France, dur- 
ing the reign of the last king of the Valois race, had passed 
from feudalism to national unity and absolute monarchy. The 
reign of Henry IV., the first of the Bourbons, was occupied in 
securing his own ascendancy and in reconciling his new position, 
as a convert to Romanism and King of a Roman Catholic 
state, with his old position as champion of the Protestant Refor- 
mation, which he had nominally abandoned, while still sympathiz- 
ing with his former allies. The period of distraction which 
followed, under the regency of his Queen widow, Marie dc Me- 
dici, and his weak, favorite-ridden son, Louis XIII.. aflforded 
opportunity for the forces which opposed monarchical cen- 
tralization to organize into two violent factions. One was 
headed by the great nobles, whose paramount object was to re- 



202 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

cover their lost privileges. The other was a resuscitation of the 
Protestant revolt against absolutism in Church and State ; for 
while Republican ideas were being openly promulgated in other 
reformed countries as a corollary to hberty of conscience, in 
France the Huguenot church organization assumed, under a sim- 
ilar disguise, political functions which were little short of revolu- 
tionary. Thus it happened that nobles, whose real principles were 
in favor of feudal reaction, sat side by side with ardent clerical 
politicians in the Huguenot council room, and fought shoulder to 
shoulder with genuine Huguenot zealots on the battle field. In 
France, as elsewhere, leaders of reform were to be found who 
under the guise of religious enthusiasm concealed selfish personal 
aims or political ambitions. 

So matters stood when there arose to power one of the greatest 
statesmen of any age. As Bishop of Luzon, Armand Jean du 
Plessis appeared as the friend in turn of Marie de Medici, of 
her tiring woman, Eleanor Galigai, of the Queen Regent herself, 
and even of the King's favorite, the Queen's bitterest enemy, 
Luines. As Cardinal Richelieu, risen to power, he was as will- 
ing as in the days of his unsatisfied ambition to attain his ends 
by conciliation, if conciliation happened to serve his purpose bet- 
ter than force. And, being a statesman and not a bigot, he was 
prepared to use indifferently the forces of Protestantism or the 
armies of the Church to subdue his master's and his country's 
enemies. In Richelieu's estimation the King's foes were neces- 
sarily his country's, for he believed in the Divine Right of Kings ; 
but in practice France's friends were his friends, and France's 
foes his own foes, for he wielded the royal power more complete- 
ly than he could have done as premier of a constitutional mon- 
archy. With him religious predilections were subordinate to the 
claims of statecraft. He was a Prince of the Church, but he 
was also the Minister of France. When the interests of France 
could be subserved by the Church and its agents, he was ready to 
use both ; but if he considered that the interests of France de- 
manded toleration of the Church's enemies, he would tolerate 
them. Pliable if political exigencies demanded it, he was inex- 
orable and inflexible in carrying out his set purposes, yet without 



THE CARDINAL AND THE HUGUENOTS. 



203 



vindictiveness. In person he planned and executed the siege of 
La Rochelle, and neither the risk of losing political power nor 
peril of life would induce him to leave the trenches until the re- 
bellious city had submitted, and the political aspirations of the 
Huguenots had been crushed forever. Having once taught the 
reformers the hopelessness of their republican aspirations, he 
appreciated too justly the value of their enterprising spirit 
to follow up his victory by punitive measures which might have 
driven them out of France. The motive of his policy was to 
strengthen the power of the monarchy and make it independent of 
popular control. As the king needed trained men to navigate the 
ships of his mercantile marine, to manage the mercantile affairs 
of the country, and to operate the looms of his factories, this great 
statesman was too wise to commit the folly perpetrated by Louis 
the Great, the next occupant of the throne, who, blinded by his 
own glory, rashly revoked without any justification the Edict of 
Nantes, and so drove the most enterprising merchants and most 
skillful mechanics and operatives from the realm. 

Nevertheless, could Richelieu have foreseen the full effect of 
his own acts, he would have hesitated in going as far as he did. 
In razing La Rochelle ; in crushing Protestantism ; in cancelling 
de Caen's contract ; in putting restrictions on the Huguenot mer- 
cantile spirit and maritime operations, he was eff'ectually check- 
ing the ardor and enterprise of the only element in France's pop- 
ulation which showed any special aptitude or ambition in the di- 
rection of building up a naval power for France. The greatest 
Minister of Marine who has ever presided over that department 
in France dealt, unconsciously, with his own hand, the most fatal 
blow to French progress and reform. 

To decide wisely, under the embarrassing conditions created by 
the rebellious Huguenots, was indeed almost impossible. The dif- 
ficulty with which the Cardinal was met in determining his colo- 
nial policy was that of maintaining the absolute authority of the 
Crown if free scope were allowed to individual enterprise. In 
an old land, where prejudices and precedents, family memories 
and instincts, retain men in the paths trodden by their fore- 
fathers, the bulk of mankind needs to be stimulated to effort in 



204 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

new directions, whether of action or of thought. It is very differ- 
ent with communities consisting of men who have gone forth to 
seek their fortunes, and make new homes for themselves, in lands 
beyond the sea. No stimulus is usually needed to induce them 
to leave the beaten track. To Richelieu's mind it was clear that, 
to succeed in creating a submissive community, he must select as 
colonists those of his countrymen who, as good Catholics, could 
be depended on to fear God and honor the King. In order to 
check all exuberance of enterprise, he excluded the Huguenots 
from New France, and instituted a system of government which 
minimized to the utmost the influence of the people. To prevent 
the achieving of commercial independence, by the colonists, with 
all that might flow therefrom, he vested the rights of trade In the 
Company; and he used the Jesuit order as educators and mis- 
sionaries for promoting the doctrine of absolute submission to 
State and Church, and as detectives for reporting the first symp- 
toms of political disquiet. Though de Monts and the de Caens 
had the usual selfishness of men enjoying exclusive privileges, in- 
dividually they and their co-religionists would probably have 
made pushing, industrious settlers, had they been permitted and 
encouraged, not only to hold land in Canada, but also to engage 
freely in mercantile pursuits. 

The Puritans of New England contained excellent elements 
for building up a vigorous and self-reliant nation. The same can 
hardly be said of the rank and file of the settlers who were sent 
out to New France. Were the religious dif¥erences between the 
two groups the real cause of success or failure? If not the 
sole cause, they were certainly important factors. The Puri- 
tan policy of religious exclusiveness in New England, aimed 
against Roman Catholics, was as indefensible on theoretical 
grounds as Richelieu's colonial policy of religious exclusiveness 
aimed against the Huguenots ; but practically the results were 
widely different. The ultra-Protestants of New England were 
bigots, wedded to certain notions of government in Church 
and State ; but their notions were their own notions, had been 
formed independently, without suggestion from the parent State, 
and were held tenaciously. These men recognized no authority 



COMMERCIAL RIVALRY. 



205 



but their own interpretation of the Bible, and were thus free to 
commence at once and frame a State for themselves on original 
lines. They engaged in trade with the same disregard to rules 
and regulations, whether imposed by King or Parliament, if what 
they deemed their inherent rights were disregarded, as they 
showed to the decrees of Church and Ecumenical Councils, when 
they clashed with their private judgment. In Canada, on the 
other hand, the immigrants selected to build up New France were 
obedient vassals of the State, and, if possible, still more obedient 
children of the Church. They accepted the doctrine of their civil 
and ecclesiastical rulers that to act for themselves was illegal and 
to think for themselves nothing less than impious. 

In 1626 or 1627 Richelieu assumed the portfoho of Commerce 
and Navigation. A Frenchman to-day can easily realize the im- 
pulse which drove the great minister to foster colonization as 
a check to the progress of his successful rivals, England and Hol- 
land, in the same field. He had hardly assumed office when the 
Company of Morbihan was organized under his auspices to trade 
with New France, the West Indies, and the Baltic. It consisted 
of one hundred shareholders, had a capital of 1,600,000 livres, 
and was endowed, not only with commercial privileges, but with 
judicial and executive functions of so arbitrary a kind that they 
excited the determined hostility of the Estates of Brittany, whose 
Parliament of Rcnnes could not be cajoled or coerced into en- 
registering its articles of incorporation. It therefore lapsed in 
1627, without ever having used its capital in any one of the many 
directions contemplated. It was, however, the precursor of the 
organization which ruled Canada for more than thirty years, the 
company of the One Hundred Associates of New France or 
Canada — "La Compagnic (hi Canada, establie sous le titre de 
Nouvellc France ou la Socicte de Cent Personnes du Canada." It 
was evident to everyone that Canada would never be colonized 
by such private associations as those controlled by de Monts or 
de Caen. The failure, which was attributed by the priests to the 
Huguenot proclivities of the partners, was really due to the spirit 
of monopoly which the very terms of the concession called into 
being. It is strange that a long-sighted statesman like Richelieu 



206 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



should have beHeved he could cure the abuses that had sprung up 
in connection with a small company by creating a larger one, en- 
dowed with the same exclusive powers which had been the ob- 
vious cause of those abuses. 

There were only eight or nine associates in de Caen's company. 
Champlain, in his deposition before Sir Henry Martin, named as 
the partners whom he recollected, Mons. Guillaume de Caen, of 
Dieppe; his nephew, Emery de Caen, of Rouen; Dolu, of Paris; 
Mons. de Nouveau, of Paris ; Mons. Deschenes, of St. Malo ; with 
them were three or four others, whose names he could not remem- 
ber. His brother-in-law, Eustace BouUe, supplied the names of 
two of the forgotten partners, Mons. Harvey and Mons. Devostre. 

Richelieu vainly imagined that his own assumption of the po- 
sition of Viceroy of Canada (he had bought out the Duke de Ven- 
tadour), and his patronage of the company, would ensure its ful- 
filling the mission assigned to it, no matter what its constitu- 
tion might be. The bitter feeling in ecclesiastical circles, and the 
jealousy of the mercantile community, coupled with the admitted 
failure of de Caen to fulfill his promises, made the cancellation of 
his privileges a foregone conclusion. The constitution of the Mor- 
bihan Company supplied certain of the features which we 
find in that of the company of the One Hundred Asso- 
ciates, the charter of which bears date April 29, 1627. At this 
very moment the Huguenots were marshalling their forces, under 
the ill-advised encouragement of England and Holland, to defy 
Louis XHI. and Richelieu, and extort from them by force of 
arms a modified political independence. What wonder, therefore, 
that the document was distinctly hostile to those sectaries ? There 
were times when English sovereigns thought that encouraging 
schismatics to emigrate was the easiest way of disposing of them. 
But Richelieu was made of different stuff from the Stuarts. 

Despite the clause of the company's charter providing that 
none but natural born Frenchmen holding the Catholic faith 
might enroll themselves as members, we find that Emery de 
Caen and his Huguenot crew had to be entrusted with the 
dangerous venture of carrying relief to Champlain in the sum- 
mer of 1629. Richelieu was too wise a man to be rigidly bound 



COMPANY OF THE HUNDRED ASSOCIATES. 



207 



by his own rules. Throughout his whole career he was regard- 
ed with distrust by the ultra-Catholics, on account of his leniency 
towards the Huguenots after they had been conquered, and on ac- 
count of his willingness to ally himself with Protestant powers in 
order to crush his Catholic enemies. His illiberal colonial 
policy was therefore not dictated by religious fanaticism, but by 
motives of statecraft. It harmonized with the absolutism of his 
political creed. As he was unable to exterminate the Huguenots 
and eliminate their doctrine from Old France, he resolved to 
make use of them and their foreign allies to strengthen his position 
at home and abroad. None the less he objected to them and their 
republican aspirations ; and, in the new society he was founding, 
he determined to prevent the growth of any such political hetero- 
doxy by forbidding the seed of schism to be sown in its virgin soil. 
To that end he preferred to use as his instruments the astute and 
learned Jesuits, rather than the narrow-minded Recollet Friars. 
They would be as watchful against the introduction of heresy and 
its political counterpart as the Dominicans themselves, while 
they would cultivate in the community a higher and stronger type 
of Catholicism than any of the mendicant orders. 

The incorporators of the new company were the Cardinal him- 
self, the Sieur de Roquemont, Houel, Comptroller General of the 
salt works in Brouage, de la Lataignant, a bourgeois of Calais, 
Dablon, syndic of Dieppe, Du Chesne, magistrate of the town of 
Havre de Grace, and Jacques Castillon, of Paris. The act, after 
reciting the usual mixed motives which had induced the Kings 
of France to encourage colonization, namely, to extend the 
Faith, and with it commerce, goes on to deplore the failure 
of the previous company to fulfill the conditions of the 
grant, and then declares that, in virtue of the powers vested in 
him, the said Lord Cardinal, consents and ac^rces, subject to the 
good pleasure of his Majesty, to grant a charter to the new Com- 
pany of One Hundred members, on the followinc^ conditions: 

Before the close of 1628, three hundred mechanics were to be 
transported to the colony, and within fifteen years subsequently 
the number of immigrants was to be increased to 4,000 souls of 
both sexes ; for three years the company was to support the im- 



208 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



migrants, after which period they would be expected to sup- 
port themselves by agriculture from the lands assigned to 
them. No foreigner was to enter New France, and no French- 
man who did not profess the Catholic Faith, For every post 
(habitation) erected in the colony during the sixteen years ter- 
minating in 1643, the company must support three priests to labor 
among the Indians, though they may commute this charge by a 
grant of cleared land. As a return for the assumption of these 
burdens and the fulfillment of these obligations, an absolute trans- 
fer is made to the company of all the lands which France claims 
between Florida and the Arctic Circle and between Newfoundland 
and the Great Lakes, with all lands watered by the tributaries of 
the St. Lawrence which they may acquire by exploration, the King, 
as feudal lord, reserving only "le ressort de la foi et hommage" 
and claiming as mark of fealty a gold crown of the weight of eight 
marks, on his accession. The support of the officers of justice, who 
were to be nominated by the company, but confirmed by the Crown, 
is to fall on the company. The company is to have the right of sov- 
ereign power in matters of offence and defence. Lands within 
the territory ceded to the company and by the company to the 
seigneurs are to be held as under previous grants. Exclusive 
right to traffic in furs is granted in perpetuity to the company, 
and exclusive fishing rights for fifteen years. The inhabitants 
may traffic with the Indians, but must sell what they purchase 
to the company or its factors, and the company must buy beaver 
skins at forty sols Tournois apiece. The King loans the company 
two ships, which, if lost otherwise than by capture in war, are to 
be replaced by them. He also makes over to them four little brass 
culverins. As an inducement to skilled workmen to immigrate, ar- 
tisans who have worked for six years in Canada on returning 
to France may assume the title of maitres de chefs d'oeuvres, and 
open shops in Paris and other towns. And to encourage manu- 
facturing in Canada, it is provided that all manufactured goods 
may enter France free of duty for fifteen years. No one 
is to lose rank by engaging in trade, or investing in the stock of 
the company. On the contrary, his Majesty will ennoble twelve 
of the plebeian members of the company. All descendants of 



COMPANY OF THE HUNDRED ASSOCIATES. 



209 



French immigrants and all converted Indians are to be free citi- 
zens, and entitled to all the privileges of citizens of France. 

The first signature of the document is that of Armand, Cardinal 
Richelieu, the second that of de Roquemont, the unfortunate Ad- 
miral who, when in charge of the first fleet sent by the company, 
had to fight Kirke in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The articles of 
partnership adopted by the associates, and approved by the Cardi- 
nal, fixed the capital at 300,000 livres, to be subscribed in equal 
proportions of 3,000 livres by each of the One Hundred Associ- 
ates, and payable 1,000 livres January i, 1628, and the balance as 
called for by the directors ; but any subscriber may withdraw by 
forfeiting his first payment, provided no profits have been di- 
vided. Of the directors one-third at least shall be merchants. Then 
follow the rights and duties of the board, which are very ample. 
The board is not compelled to call to its council any of the share- 
holders, unless when recommending appointments to the King, 
or deeding land in excess of two hundred acres, in which case 
twenty shareholders, including the members of the board, in per- 
son or by proxy, must deliberate in the presence of the Intendant, 
and no act of tlie board shall be valid unless signed by the Se- 
cretary and four directors. The principal oftice of the company 
is to be in Paris ; but offices may be opened in the most notable 
maritime and inland towns of the realm, if the business of the 
company should in time warrant it. The directors living out of 
Paris may be represented at the board meeting by proxy. All the 
fiduciary officers must keep proper cash books, journals and 
ledgers, and full statements of account must he sent to the Paris 
office within three months of the sailing and arrival of vessels, 
and to the local boards at Rouen, Bordeaux, and other local of- 
fices, within one month after the sailing or arrival of the com- 
pany's packet. The directors or agents are forbidden to involve 
the company in debt in excess of its capital. All the profits accru- 
ing from the company's operations during the first year are to be 
funded ; afterwards, one-third of the profits may be distributed, 
and two-thirds funded. All wages are to be paid by the directors, 
but directors themselves arc to receive no other compensation 
than a pound of white candles and the privilege of taking part 



210 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

in any meeting of the company's representatives anywhere; but 
in case of travel on company's affairs, they are to be compensated. 
The directors are authorized to devote 500 louis a year to char- 
ity — but only out of the profits. The treasurer shall be appointed 
by the board. He shall keep a set of books, and annually make 
a balance sheet. He shall make an annual statement which shall 
be audited by the Intendant and the directors, and the audit shall 
be final, as though all directors were present. Any shareholder of 
the company may subdivide or sell part of his share, but he and 
his associate have only one vote. But any shareholder may sell 
his share, and the purchaser of a competent associate shall be 
recognized as an original associate. The creditors of an associate 
must accept the published statement of the company's affairs, and 
must submit to the regulations of the company without enjoying 
any vote. In case of the death of an associate, the heirs must ap- 
point one of the members to represent the interests of the asso- 
ciate. 

The Cardinal is requested to nominate as Intendant of the com- 
pany's affairs the Sieur de Lauzon, who shall be chairman of the 
board, and preside at its weekly and at all extraordinary meet- 
ings. The board is to consist of twelve directors, of whom six 
are to be residents of Paris and the others of towns within the 
realm. The twelve directors are to hold office for two years, 
and at the biennial election six of the old directors are to 
be re-elected. The annual meeting is to be held at the 
Intendant's house in Paris, or some other convenient place, 
on the 15th day of January. Associates who cannot attend 
are requested to express in writing their views as to the manage- 
ment of the company. At the annual meeting measures shall 
be carried by a majority of votes. The directors are empowered 
to modify these by-laws as circumstances may suggest. The 
above articles were confirmed by the King on May 6, 1628. Such 
were the ample powers of the company of the One Hundred As- 
sociates, but five years had yet to elapse before they were put into 
execution. 

England in 1627 took up the cause of the Huguenots. Buck- 
ingham, Charles the First's favorite, in revenge for his slighted 



THE SIEGE OF LA ROCHELLE. 



211 



addresses to Queen Anne of Austria, Louis XIII. 's queen, is 
said to have instigated the Huguenots to make their fatal and 
foolish, and what proved to be their last real struggle, for political 
power. At any rate, whether England fomented the trouble or not, 
she sent a fleet under Buckingham to help her ally. Without any 
declaration of war, the English commander appeared before 
Rochelle in July, 1627, for the purpose of raising the siege of 
that place. But, even as a military engineer, Richelieu was more 
than a match for his rebellious countrymen, aided by their power- 
ful sympathizers ; for the memorable siege terminated by the fall 
of Rochelle on October 29, 1628. 

It was in the beginning of the year 1628 that the company of 
the One Hundred Associates was to begin its active operations. 
As a first step towards carrying out their pledges, they fitted out a 
fleet under the Sieur de Roquemont to convey colonists and priests 
to the colony. De Roquemont was the bearer of a commission to 
Champlain to act as commandant in New France, and in that ca- 
pacity to begin his administration by taking an inventory of de 
Caen's property, after which he was to make a report as to the 
state of the colony, and forward it, with the inventory, to Riche- 
lieu. It was many a day before Champlain received his com- 
mission, and, as we have seen, he made the inventory not for the 
French Minister of Marine, but for Admiral Kirke. De Roque- 
mont's fleet escaped two Rochelle ships in the Channel, but, as 
already narrated, fell in with Kirke's fleet in the Gulf.* 

While Kirke and other brave, restless fellows of the west coast 
of England were taking advantage of the war to gratify their love 
of adventure and fill their pockets, the nation was fretting over 
Buckingham's disgraceful campaign and retreat from before Ro- 
chelle. Not only had this deeply wounded the national pride and 

* Kirke, in his deposition before Sir Henry Martin, Knight, says that, in the 
expedition against the f>ench in 1628, he was sent forth at the charge of his late 
father, Gervan Kirke, and other merchants in London. The expedition of 1629 
was fitted out by Sir William Alexander the younger — the individual to whom 
Charles I. had given such a sweeping grant of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia — 
by Kirke's father, and others. Sir William had a commission as a privateer 
under the broad seal of England, and his instructions were to transplant the 
French from Canada, and utterly to expel them — a task which he executed with 
remarkable thoroughness. 



212 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



hurt the Protestant cause, but it had emptied the already impover- 
ished treasury. It was in his attempt to replenish it in his own 
pecuHar, arbitrary way that Charles involved himself in the disas- 
trous war with his people, which was destined to be much more 
momentous in its bearing on popular liberty than any temporary 
advantages which the Rochellois might have won through Eng- 
land's assistance. 

It was in November, 1627, that Buckingham, with his dis- 
comfited fleet and army, returned. The Commons met in the fol- 
lowing March, and Charles was compelled to sign the famous 
Petition of Rights on May 28, in order to obtain relief from his 
pecuniary embarrassment. Neither his temper nor that of the 
people was improved by the military events of 1627. A new ex- 
pedition to relieve Rochelle was demanded by public opinion, 
but not under the leadership of the gallant courtier. Neverthe- 
less, despite the national protest, another fleet was about to sail 
under the same amateur general when Felton's dagger relieved 
him of the command. Charles may have been glad in the spring 
of 1628 that Kirke and his friends should wage war on their own 
account, to his and their possible profit ; but before Kirke set sail 
again in 1629 for the St. Lawrence, Charles had learned that his 
bitterest enemies were those of his own household, and that he had 
more to fear from his own people than from his wife's kinsfolk 
across the channel. He was not reluctant, therefore, to sign the 
treaty of Suze on April 24, 1629.* 

Kirke had sailed from Greenwich on the 15th of the same 
month with a fleet of six ships and two pinnaces, to pick 
the fruit he had left hanging on the tree the autumn previously, 
for he knew full well that Champlain could oppose no resistance, 

* Article VII. of Treaty of Suze. Inasmuch as many vessels with letters of 
Marque and armaments cannot be advised of this peace nor receive orders to ab- 
stain from all hostile acts, it is a8:reed by this article that nothing which may 
happen within two months after this agreement shall derogate from or prevent 
this peace or interfere with the good will between the two crowns; it being, how- 
ever, agreed that anything seized within two months after the signature of this 
treaty shall be restored by the one party to the other. By the terms of Article III. 
of the Treaty of St. Germain en Laye eight days are allowed the British com- 
manders of fortified posts to vacate them with their arms and personal effects; but 
three weeks in addition, or if necessary a longer time, are allowed civilians to de- 
part with their property. 



KIRKE IX POSSESSION OF QUEBEC. 



213 



and must capitulate on demand. He may therefore have been 
ignorant when he captured Quebec, of the turn affairs had taken, 
though Bouhe told Champlain, when they met as prisoners at Ta- 
dousac, that Emery de Caen, whom he had sighted in the Gulf 
before his surrender to Kirke, had told him of the signing 
of the treaty. He had, of course, communicated the news to 
the general after his capture, but it was probably the first notice 
Kirke had received of it. The conversation recorded after the 
capture of de Caen would also imply that he warned Kirke 
that he was acting piratically. It may have mattered little at the 
time to an adventurer like Kirke, who was probably not over- 
scrupulous as to treaties, but it mattered much ultimately, for it 
gave Charles a reason for disallowing his acts, restoring the con- 
quered territory, and insisting on the surrender of the booty. The 
war had been entered on by England without provocation, and 
once Rochelle had fallen, there was no valid excuse for its con- 
tinuance — the more so as Richelieu had treated his conquered 
foes with great magnanimity and leniency. There was, there- 
fore, good reason for making peace and restoring territory that 
had been taken after peace had been signed. Nevertheless three 
years passed before the ileur-de-lis again floated over Fort St. 
Louis. LeClercqsays that the delay was due to indifference and 
doubt as to the value of New France, for Old France judged of its 
capabilities by Cartier's and Champlain's experience. There is 
justification for this supposition in the fact that the diplomatic 
correspondence betrayed, on the part of France, greater urgency 
to secure payment for, or return of, the beaver skins taken from 
de Caen's stores than the restitution of the conquered territory. 
This anxiety about de Caen's property is sufficient to dispel the 
suspicion hinted at by Richelieu himself — tliougli it is difficult to 
see how it could have l)ecn seriously entertained — that the Kirkcs 
were instigated to attack the French possession by de Caen in re- 
venge for the cancellation of his trading privileges. Tt needed no 
such incentive to induce an enterj)rising family of merchant adven- 
turers like the Kirkes, father and sons, to attack an enemy at once 
so defenseless and so wealthy as the de Caen trading company, 
whose profits, great as they were, were probal)ly grossly exag- 



214 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



gerated by public rumor, and whose stock of furs in the Quebec 
storehouse may have been supposed to be many times greater than 
it actually was. A still stronger argument against such an in- 
jurious supposition is that de Caen was in 1632 commissioned to 
receive back the post of Quebec from David Kirke, and permitted 
to enjoy the fur trade for a year longer.* 

During Kirke's occupation France made no serious demonstra- 
tion against Canada ; neither did the company of the One Hun- 
dred Associates make any pretense of entering on the enjoyment 
of their rights. On the other hand, England took no active 
measures to put its newly acquired territory into a state 
of defence, and Englishmen showed no inclination to or- 
ganize colonization schemes for peopling the St. Lawrence, 
under the instigation either of religious enthusiasm or of 
mercantile gain. Charles seems to have granted somewhat the 
same exclusive trading advantages to a mercantile company or- 
ganized by Kirke, and known as the Company of Canada, as had 
been enjoyed by the de Caen company; but the records of the 
period (Colonial Papers, Vol. 6, Art. 33), show that Kirke had no 
more power than de Monts or de Caen to repress poaching. Eng- 
land at this moment was drifting rapidly into civil war, and the 
thoughts of that energetic section of the people which might 
have supplied colonists were directed to more urgent issues 
than the driving of a few Papists from the forests of New 
France. The belief in England regarding the interior of the con- 
tinent was that it was a land of snow and ice, more desolate than 
even the barren coast of New England, and not, therefore, a tempt- 
ing field for agriculture. There was, consequently, no outcry, ex- 
cept on the part of Kirke and his fellow adventurers, when Charles 
agreed to restore the fields of snow and ice to Louis XIIL There 
might have been some opposition, though it would have availed 
naught, had it been known that he sold Kirke's conquests in the 
New World for 800,000 crowns — a sum really due by France as 
the unpaid balance of his wife's dowry, but which the French 

* Le Clercq puts the company's trade in beaver skins alone at 100,000 crowns 
annually. 



AN UNPROFITABLE CONQUEST. 



King, or rather the French Cardinal, refused to pay unless Port 
Royal, Quebec, and all that the Kirkes had wrenched from France 
in 1628- 1629 were restored. Charles needed the money urgently, 
wherewith to fight his subjects, but the surrender cost England 
and her colonists many a million. Nevertheless, whatever the mo- 
tives for the restoration, Quebec, captured three months after the 
treaty of peace had been signed, belonged rightfully to France, 
and was rightfully restored to her. 

None the less must we sympathize with Captain David 
Kirke and his brothers. An empty title was but poor compensa- 
tion for what they did, could the full value of the achieve- 
ment have been foreseen ; and the title was all they actually 
received, for the skins they brought back in 1629 were seized and 
ultimately surrendered to de Caen, and it is not very clear whether 
Kirke's legitimate claim against de Caen for provisions supplied 
to the starving colony and for transportation to France of the 
famished colonists was ever settled. He not unreasonably con- 
tended that what he gave was worth more than what he had seized, 
and that, had the case been tried in England, de Caen would have 
been required to pay him, and not he de Caen. De Caen 
brought in a bill for 266,000 livres, although Champlain 
estimated the total number of beaver skins handed over at 
only 3,000, from which had to be deducted those which each 
returning Frenchman was allowed to appropriate and carry 
to France, leaving a remainder of 1.713. While the miser- 
able beaver skins were deposited, by way of sequestration, under 
lock and key by order of the Court of Admiralty, a certain Thomas 
Felty, merchant, was accused and imprisoned in the Fleet for 
stealing some of them. Sir W. Alexander and Captain David 
Kirke and their associates were meanwhile complaining to 
the Admiralty that they could not lock up the St. Lawrence 
securely against illicit skippers, who were robl)ing them of 
their privileged trade. There was thus trouble and complaint 
and embarrassment on all sides, and apparently little profit, de- 
spite the great value of the fnr trade and the prizes taken by 
Kirke in 1628-1620. Poaching and suits for damages, and the 
short term of the trading monopoly enjoyed by Kirke and his 



2l6 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



business copartners, must have made the first conquest of Quebec 
a losing venture. 

In the testimony taken in the case of the adventurers against 
the owners of the ''EHza of London," one of the poachers, some 
curious figures are given which bear on the value of the St. 
Lawrence trade. Thomas Roycroft says that he was willing to 
trade three for one, which meant three elk skins for one blanket. 
John Baker, Mariner, of the *'Eliza," says he brought to Eng- 
land 53^2 casks of beaver skins and some elk skins. His share 
was 40 pounds of beaver skins. Captain Eustace Mann says that 
his ship brought from Canada 531 bear skins, which were sold 
for about £500, and 100 odd elk skins, which were sold for about 
iioo. A certain Samuel Pierce Bever makes admission that he 
bought 880 pounds weight of beaver skins in six hogsheads, 
for which he paid £880, and that he and others bought 
about 300 pounds more from members of the crew, whence we 
would gather that beaver skins were worth the high price of 
£1 per pound weight, and bear and moose skins about ii apiece, 
and that the Indians were willing to exchange three moose skins 
for one blanket. The trade in peltries must therefore have been 
temptingly profitable, and we can appreciate Kirke's and his as- 
sociates' indignation at having to surrender it, together with the 
post of Quebec. Although during the three years of occupation no 
pretence was made to colonize the St. Lawrence, trade must have 
been more actively conducted than it had been by either de Monts 
or de Caen, for in a note of such things as this company had in 
Canada and the number of its men, made before its surrender, 
the following particulars are given : 

"A note of all such things as the company hath in Canada and 
the number of men. 

'Imprimis they have above 200 persons in the fort and habyta- 
tion of Kebec and gone up from 400 leages in the country for 
further discoverys. 

*Tn the fort there is 16 peeces of ordnance and 8 murderers, 
75 musketts and 25 fowling peeces and 10 arkebusses a Croake 
and 30 pistolls 8 dozen of pikes and 24 holbeards and 40 Corse- 
letts and 10 armors of proofi'e and 6 Targetts. 



A MEMORABLE INVENTORY. 



217 



"In the sayd fort there is 2000 powder for the ordnance, 300 
of musketts powder, and one hundred and half of fowHnge pow- 
der, Rownd shott, burd shott, Langer shott, and chrossbar shott, 
enough for the use of there powder, and 10 barrells more which 
the Maye have of the store of 3 pinaces which are there furnished 
with 6 peeces of ordnance a peece and 6 murderers a peece and 
5 barills a pow^der a peece and all thinges convenyent for their 
Rigginge and Munition of war. 

"The sayd 200 persons vittled accordinge to his IMajesties al- 
lowance att sea for 18 monthes besides what they fownd upon the 
ground which is able to find them 6 months more soe that the are 
very well vittled for 2 years and within towe yeers if they worke 
as the have beegon the wilbee able to subsist of themselves. 

"There is goods for to trade with the natives of the Contrey 
more then wee are able to vent in 2 yeeres which goods are no 
wheare vendable butt in that contry and which goods stands use in 
6000 1. starlinge besides charges which doth amount to 6000 1. 
more. 

"All sort of tooles for smithes millers masones plasterers Car- 
pendars Joyners bricklers whillons bakers bruers ship-carpenters 
shoomakers and taylors. 

"10 Shallops fitted with bases for the head and all other fur- 
niture. 

"All sort of tooles beelonginge to the fortyfication. 

"The abovesayde fort is soe well situated that the are able to 
withstand 10000 men and will not care for tliem, for whatsoever 
the can doe, for in winter they cannot stay in the countrey soe 
that whosesoever goes to beesidge them the cannot staye there 
above 3 monthes in all in which time the muskett will soe tor- 
ment them that noe man is able to bee abroad in centry or thrench- 
es day nor night without loosing there sightes for att least eyght 
dayes. 

"So that if please his Majestic to keepe it we doe not care what 
French or any other can doe thoe the have a 100 sayle of shipps 
and 10000 men as above sayde. 

"(Siir Ic dos est ecrit.) 



2l8 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



"Note of all such thinges as the Company hath in Canada and 
the number of men."* 

Although we may infer from the above memorandum that the 
Kirkes were not idle, the details of the occupation are meager. 
Champlain closes his doleful narrative with the gossip of two 
Frenchmen who returned with Thomas Kirke in October, 1630. 
It would seem that the Kirkes removed their headquarters from 
Tadousac to Quebec, with a view, as Champlain reasonably sup- 
posed, to concentrating their forces in anticipation of a retaliatory 
attack. In the summer of 1630, Captain Thomas Kirke made a 
trading voyage to Quebec with two ships, and returned with 300,- 
000 livres worth of peltries, if we are to believe the report of these 
two Frenchmen — one a carpenter, the other a laborer — who 
elected to return to Old France with him. They reported a se- 
vere winter, which had carried off fourteen of the English, and 
a thunder storm which had killed three or four more, together 
with two dogs, and played havoc with the fort, and stated further 
that the English showed as little inclination to engage in honest 
husbandry, or to provide for their own support, as the French had 
done. 

In 163 1 Richelieu granted Emery de Caen a passport to trade 
in the St. Lawrence, but the Kirkes did not confirm it. They 

treated him, however, with their usual courtesy, and, had there 
been skins enough offering for both, they would have allowed 
him his share; but the supply was short that summer, and 
the best terms they would accord him was permission to 
land his merchandise and a clerk, and to barter his goods for pel- 
tries during the winter, if the Indians should bring in any. De 
Caen, on his return, regaled Champlain with a whole batch of 
bad news, which, despite the ex-governor's generous nature, was 
probably more or less grateful to him. One of the stories was 
that the Protestant minister had, with the renegade French- 
men, fomented a mutiny among the English soldiers against 
Louis Kirke. The plot was discovered and Kirke's life was 
saved. He dealt leniently with the dupes of the mini? ,er, 

* Colonial Papers, Vol. VI., N. 38, and Laverdi^re, Champlain, page 1434. 



CARDINAL RICHELIEU AND HIS ENEMIES. 2ig 

but him he imprisoned for six months in the Jesuit house, to the 
no slight inconvenience of the pious French, for, as the Abbe Fail- 
Ion tells us, while it was used as a prison no public service could 
be held in it. The whole story is probably composed of clerical 
glosses upon some minor incidents. It is repeated with appropri- 
ate reflections in Father Le Jeune's Relations of 1632. In so far 
as can be ascertained, the whole colony seems to have been on 
friendly terms with the conquerors, and the rebellious minister 
had other occupation than inciting to murder, for on the 19th of 
February, 1631, that is, during the English occupation, there being 
no priests, ihe daughter of Guillaume Couillard was christened 
by the Protestant minister. Louis Kirke stood as godfather, and 
the wife of the surgeon, Adrien Duchene, was godmother. (Tan- 
gnay, Diet. Genealogique. Note to page 142.) 

On July 13th, 1632, Quebec was restored to France, in ac- 
cordance with the treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye, signed March 
29th, 1632. The event occurred when the power of King Louis 
XIII. and the influence of the great Cardinal-Minister were ap- 
proaching their zenith, though the summer of 1632 was a critical 
period in the life of both. Richelieu in May of that year, had 
brought Marechal Marillac to the scaffold for conspiring with the 
Queen Mother ; and when the apparently insignificant act of trans- 
ferring a paltry fort in the wild forests of the New World was be- 
ing accomplished, a serious revolt was in progress headed by Gas- 
ton d'Orleans, the King's brother, and aided by the Due de Mont- 
morency, against "the disturbers of the general peace, the enemies 
of the King and the Royal House, the dissipators of the State, and 
the tyrants both of men of quality and of the common people," as 
the conspirators styled the Cardinal. Rut the able minister, thus de- 
signated, triumphed ; the Duke, brilliant and popular as he was, 
failed. On October 30th, when the dreary winter was gathering 
over the resuscitated but still languid colony, the head of Mont- 
morency, the former Viceroy of New France, fell on the block. 
The most popular man in France sacrificed himself to a craven 
coward, the King's brother, who earned his own safety by swear- 
ing love and submission to all the King's advisers, and especially 
to Richelieu, his bitterest enemy. The audacity shown by the Car- 



220 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

dinal in thus punishing by death one of the great nobles and the 
people's favorite for aiding a royal rebel, was not only the last 
act of that tragical drama of sectional strife which closed the 
feudal age, but it riveted on France the shackles of monarchical 
absolutism. In the death roll were included, with the popular 
hero, a number of his personal followers. Thus the feudal lord 
and his feudal retainers fell together, because they ventured to 
aid an aspiring royal rebel against the legitimate King. 

All this occurred when New France was receiving its con- 
stitution from the Cardinal's hands, and it was therefore of the 
deepest significance to Canada, for the colonial plans of the 
autocrat were sure to bear the stamp of his domestic policy. Ab- 
solutism had triumphed in France, and absolutism must there- 
fore be the rule on the St. Lawrence. Popular liberty must never 
be allowed even to raise its voice ; and thus it would never require 
to be silenced. New France must be quarantined against the 
highly contagious disease of religious freedom, and to that end 
religious discussion must be prohibited. Intendants and military 
governors must be sent out armed with full power to direct the 
energies of the people into innocent paths; in other words, to 
thwart any aspirations towards self-government. The Jesuits 
also must be sent out to control religious thought and confine it 
within prescribed channels. The latter object was accomplished 
so effectually that, not only was Protestantism excluded, but such 
mild deviation from strict orthodoxy as Jansenism, or even Quiet- 
ism, did not escape their vigilant scrutiny. 

In Europe Richelieu was led, as we have seen, by political ne- 
cessity to tolerate the Huguenots in France and ally himself with 
the great Protestant champion, Gustavus Adolphus, against Cath- 
olic Spain and Austria ; but in America, as nothing was to be 
feared from Spain, still less from Austria, while everything was 
to be feared from the influence of the neighboring English col- 
onies, all the machinery of Church and State was designed to pre- 
vent the introduction from that quarter of pernicious doctrines 
and examples. English statesmen had been glad to see dis- 
sent emigrate : Richelieu decided that, if there was to be a New 
France created over the sea, it must be moulded into exact con- 



RETROCESSION OF QUEBEC TO FEL\NCE. 



221 



formity with his theory of arbitrary government and the most 
conservative traditions of old France. 

Neither he nor the commercial company of his creation seems 
to have been very earnest in carrying out their colonization 
schemes. The new company of the One Hundred Associates 
made a futile effort to fulfill their contract in 1629. They sent 
Captain Daniel, of Dieppe, in command of four ships and a bark, 
to carry emigrants and supplies to Quebec, Champlain being com- 
missioned as their representative. On reaching the Great Banks, 
Daniel heard that a certain Sir James Stuart, who claimed kin- 
ship with the royal family of England, had established a fishing 
station on the Island of Cape Breton, and, instead of fulfilling his 
commission, he took Stuart and his comrades prisoners and re- 
turned with them to France. 

The Jesuits chartered a ship and sailed in the spring for Que- 
bec, but were driven ashore on the Nova Scotia coast. Some were 
drowned, some were rescued by a Basque fisherman, but of these 
only Father Lalemant survived a second disaster off St. Sebastian. 
The consort ship of the Jesuits, commanded by Joubert, hear- 
ing that Quebec had fallen, prudently returned to France. 
We have seen what befell de Caen in charge of a third expedi- 
tion. The Chevalier de Razilly was next commissioned to carry 
succor to the colony, and to resist the English occupation. But 
he never sailed, and his instructions and destination were changed. 

So David Kirke remained in unopposed occupation of his post 
until that July day in 1632, when de Caen, without waste of 
gimpowder or any undue parade, resumed possession of the 
place. The Cardinal had allowed the old company the privilege 
of trading one year longer on the St. Lawrence — a prudent meas- 
ure, as it gave them time to collect what property they had ; but 
above all to remove any Huguenots without the infliction of un- 
necessary harshness, and to collect data for their claim against the 
British Government under the treaty of St. Germain. Whether 
all the provisions of that treaty were ever carried out is 
more than doubtful, for treaty obligations to pay money have 
too often rested lightly on State officials. By the treaty, 
Quebec, as well as all British conquests in Acadia and Cape Bre- 



222 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

ton, were to be restored within eight days after the commandants 
of the posts were notified of the treaty; but three weeks longer 
were allowed for the English garrison and inhabitants to evacu- 
ate the country with their arms and personal possessions. For 
the transportation of the garrison and traders, de Caen was bound 
to charter and equip a ship of from two hundred to two hundred 
and fifty tons ; and, for goods belonging to British subjects, if left 
in Quebec, their cost in England, with thirty per cent to cover 
risks, is to be paid. Quebec is to be restored, and its buildings, 
munitions of war and stores, are to be returned in kind or in 
value, as they were When captured, except those stores taken 
away by the English in 1629, negotiations about which had 
already lasted two whole years, and for which Great Britain 
now promised to pay de Caen 82,700 livres Tournois. Great 
Britain also undertook to return to de Caen the bark "St. He- 
lene" and its cargo ; and certain other prizes were to be restored 
to their owners; but there are to be deducted certain expenses 
for care and maintenance and port dues, and 1,200 livres which 
de Caen is adjudged to owe the Kirkes for the transportation of 
the French to France in 1629. With such a complicated open 
account to be settled, it is easy to understand why Richelieu ac- 
corded the old Huguenot company another year of trade mon- 
opoly, for that was a period all too short within which to take 
inventory of stock and losses, and file claims against a foreign 
government, to say nothing of withdrawing the heretic traders 
from the country. 

Father Le Jeune, in his Relation of 1632, describes as extreme 
the desolation of the post when Emery de Caen and de Plessis 
Bouchard entered into possession on the 13th of July, 1632. The 
habitation was a heap of ashes— reduced, intentionally he implies, 
to that condition by Thomas Kirke — though, if the story of the 
damage done by lightning be true, natural causes suffice to ac- 
count for it. It is not clear why Kirke should have intentionally 
destroyed what he expected would remain his property. 

In the Jesuit House all the furniture that remained was two 
tables. The doors were ofif their hinges. The windows were 
broken, and the garden overgrown with peas. The Recollet mon- 



AN INTERESTING RELIGIOUS SERVICE. 



223 



astery was still more deplorably desolate. Both were far removed 
from the fort, and, if unoccupied, they may well have advanced 
towards utter ruin under the ravages of the weather and the In- 
dians, without any aid from Kirke and his Protestant minister. 

The Recollets, not being permitted to return, had authorized 
the Jesuits to unearth the church plate, and to use it. The widow 
of Louis Hebert and her son-in-law, Guillaume Couillard, 
continued to cultivate the portion of land deeded to Hebert 
in 1626, which occupied probably the site of the present Semi- 
nar}^ Garden. At her house the priests gathered together the little 
company of the faithful. It was not as Father Le Jeune called 
it "la plus ancienne de ce pays-ci," if the chapel were still standing 
near the habitation which Father Dolbeau built in the Lower 
Town in 161 5. The family of Abraham Martin, the Scotch pilot, 
was probably of the number of those who attended this first mass. 
He was an industrious man, and, when not on the water, cultivat- 
ed a farm forming probably part of the battlefield which was to be 
drenched with blood in the middle of the next century. Abraham 
Martin held twelve acres as a concession made by the company 
in 1635, and in 1648 Adrian Duchesne transferred to him thirty- 
two adjacent acres, all of which his heirs sold in 1667 to the Ur- 
suline nuns, in whose possession it remained till recently, when a 
portion, generally admitted to be the scene of the Battle of the 
Plains, was bought by the Dominion Government. The family of 
Nicolas Pivert and Pierre Dcsportes, who was in charge of the Cap 
Tourmente establishment when it was destroyed by Kirke's men in 
1628, remained in Canada, though they probably did not overtly 
transfer their allegiance to England, and fight on her side, as did 
Marsolet and Brule.* Whether all these were Catholics may well 
be doubted ; but religion has everywhere and at all times sat light- 
ly on the consciences of backwoodsmen and hunters. Catholicism 
was to be the password, under the new regime, for admission into 
New France, and few of the rank and file of dc Caen's Huguenot 
followers, if they had l)cconic enamoured of the wild life oi the 

* Poor Erulr did not long survive the surrender. He was killed by a 
Montagnais Indian in the following spring. The priests looked on liis murder 
as an instance of divine retril)Ution against a traitor; Chaniplain looked on it as a 
crime. 



224 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



wilderness, would hesitate to use it. Even Emery de Caen, smart- 
ing under the forfeiture of his concession, permitted the Jesuit 
Fathers to say mass on Sunday in one of the rooms of the Cha- 
teau, pending the erection of a church. Within a month supplies, 
in men and provisions, sufficient for all immediate requirements, 
arrived under the Sieur de la Ralde and Captain Morieult. Among 
the immigrants were two notable men, Noel Juchereau and Guil- 
laume Guillemot — sent out probably to safeguard the interests 
of the new company, for the de Caens may have been suspected 
of taking unfair advantage of their temporary concession, espe- 
cially as the internal affairs of France were so disturbed. Specu- 
lation was evidently rife on that subject in Quebec. According to 
Father Le Jeune, it divided the little settlement during the long 
winter months into two factions, one party arguing in favor of 
the old company and the other in favor of the new. Had they 
known that the great Cardinal had carried his point, and that the 
head of Montmorency had fallen, none would have been surprised 
when Champlain appeared in the spring of 1633 as the Governor 
of New France, to assert and to enforce the claims of the new 
company. 

The interregnum between the dissolution of the old company 
and the active rule of the new, including the three years of the 
English occupation, was therefore five years. With the arrival 
of Champlain in the spring of 1633 commenced the history of 
Quebec as a town, as distinct from a trading port, and the experi- 
ment of governing a colony by a chartered trading company under 
royal auspices, instead of by a partnership of merchants. The ill- 
success of the previous attempt to shift the responsibility and bur- 
dens of State from the shoulders of French ministers to those of 
private adventurers, with interests diametrically opposed to 
those of the colonists they pledged themselves to introduce, was 
explained away by saying that de Caen and his predecessors, de 
Monts and others, were heretics, who, through renouncing the 
faith of their fathers, had lost all sense of truth and honor. 
The new company, composed of one hundred good men and 
true, actuated by zeal for the glory of France and the con- 
version of the heathen, would, it was assumed, be willing 



FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES OF THE NEW COMPANY. 225 



to put aside their selfish interests in favor of the pubHc 
good, and thus build up an empire in the New World 
which, costing France nothing, would yet redound enormous- 
ly to her profit and renown. As we shall see, it required 
only a few years to dispel the illusion, and prove that human greed 
and selfishness are not extinguished by the acceptance of any the- 
ological shibboleth ; and that even sincere and earnest endeavor to 
propagate the faith may co-exist with vicious rules incapable of 
being reconciled with the dictates of patriotism. Moreover, the 
company's career made it evident that commercial projects op- 
posed to the public interest, and therefore provoking opposition, 
cannot possibly prosper. 

The Company was already in difficulties before it com- 
menced its commercial operations in 1633, for the statement 
of its accounts made to the French Government in 167 1 
shows that it was virtually bankrupt from the first. It claimed 
that, immediately on its establishment, it equipped seven ves- 
sels at a cost of 164,720 livres, 9 sols, 7 deniers, which were cap- 
tured in the St. Lawrence. A second fleet, equipped in 1629 at a 
cost of 103,966 livres, shared the same fate. The two expedi- 
tions absorbed almost all the capital of the company, which was 
300,000 livres. Nevertheless, in 1630, a third expedition was 
despatched at a cost of 40,000 livres, which ended as disastrously 
as the preceding ones. These failures exhausted not only the 
company's capital, but its courage. Nevertheless, a subsidiary 
company was organized in November, 1632, which undertook to 
furnish the parent company with a loan of 110,000 livres for five 
years, in consideration of receiving one-third of the profits. The 
operations of the auxiliary company were successful, and enabled 
the parent company to make 60,000 livres of profit, although 
Marie and Solomon Langlois obtained a judgment against the 
company for 45,000 livres. to cover damages to their ship; and 
William de Caen made a claim against the company for 70,900 
livres, which, to avoid a seizure, they compromised by a pay- 
ment, extending over six years, of 30,000 livres and in- 
terest. The term of tlie auxiliary company's partnership 
expiring in 1637, a renewal was arranged for a further 



226 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



period of four years. But the losses of the second partner- 
ship exceeded the gain of the first, for in 1642 the parent com- 
pany owed the auxihary company 70,464 hvres, 8 sols. As the 
auxiliary company refused to renew their partnership, the orig- 
inal company was obliged to make an assessment of 1,500 livres 
on each of the 69 shareholders, to which number the original 100 
had shrunk. The company's affairs still continuing unprofitable, 
it went into voluntary liquidation by act of the Council on July 
24, 1643, owing 410,796 livres. But a partial Hquidation of their 
debts was effected by charging the auxiliary company with the 
60,000 livres, the share accruing to the original company of the 
profits of the first partnership. The assessment, though insuffi- 
cient to liquidate the dettes passives, enabled the company to con- 
tinue its operations and to make a profit of 85,000 livres during 
the four following years. 

In 1645, by royal consent, the company resigned its exclu- 
sive privileges, and permitted the people of Canada to engage in 
the fur trade, reserving 1,000 pounds weight of beaver skins as 
annual rental, besides the right to create seignories and the own- 
ership of the land. But the company received the royalty for 
five years only. If it was paid for any longer period by the in- 
habitants, the money was retained in the colony — not remitted to 
the company. Under these circumstances, the company in 1671 
consented to transfer to the King (Louis XIV.) all rights and 
privileges, on his engagement to reimburse it for all its losses. 



They rendered an account as follows : 

L. s. d. 

Cost of first expedition in 1628 164,720 9 o 

Cost of second expedition in 1629 103,976 19 

Cost of third expedition in 1630 77,092 

1632 — Assessment to pay the Langlois 45,ooo 

Liquidation of dettes passives in 1643 410,796 16 10 

Assessment in 1642 103,500 



905,084 44 10 
Interest to January, 1671 2,661,102 

Losses, assessments and interest 3,566,186 44 10 



AN UNFAVORABLE BALANCE SHEET. 22/ 

On the credit side of the account there stood : 

Profits in 1630 7^301 Hvres 

Profits of the auxiHary company 60,000 

Profits after 1643 85,000 

Royalty in beaver skins after 1645 50,000 



Total 202,301 livres 



The company came out the loser by over 3,000,000 livres 
Tournois. 



CHAPTER X. 



The Passing of Champlain and the Arrival of the First 
Seigneurs in Quebec. 

Although the affairs of the company were, as we have seen 
already, in such disorder that the funds for carrying on its opera- 
tions had to be borrowed from an auxiliary organization, com- 
posed of Normandy merchants, of whom Sieurs Rosie and Chef- 
fault were the guiding spirits, all gloomy forebodings in the 
colony itself were dispelled on that bright morning in May, 1633, 
when Champlain with a fleet of three vessels hove in sight. 
He came in a modest state, yet as beseemed a lieutenant of the 
great Cardinal, to govern half a continent. The ''St. Pierre," 
of 150 tons and 12 guns; the ''St. Jean," of 160 tons and 10 
guns, and the "Don de Dieu," of 80 tons and 6 guns, saluted 
the fort, and the fort replied with its feeble battery. Then 
the Governor landed and was escorted by arquebusiers and 
pikemen up the steep, narrow road which has always been 
called Mountain Hill, to the "Fort." It was almost five years 
since he had sadly descended it, a prisoner of war. Now 
he returned, inspired by the magnificent views of his great 
master, and cheered by his own enthusiastic belief in the future 
of the illimitable domain of which he was the ruler. Neither the 
great Cardinal's prophetic spirit nor the lieutenant's wildest 
dreams could possibly have grasped the magnitude of the ter- 
ritory which France was to explore and to claim as her own. 

The chief event of importance during the summer was the ar- 
rival of a fleet of 140 Huron canoes carrying a force of 600 
Indians. They made their camp on the ist of August. The follow- 
ing day was devoted to a council and the interchange of presents. 
On the 3rd and 4th of the month the important business of selling 
and buying was transacted. The 5th was given over to feasting 
and dancing, and on the 6th they paddled away. Before their ap- 



THE HURONS AT QUEBEC. 



229 



pearance a large party of Algonquins had been induced to forego 
their intention of proceeding to Tadousac to trade with two Eng- 
hsh ships which lay there. The Hurons also were persuaded to dis- 
pose of their peltries at Quebec, rather than to an English vessel 
which seems to have pushed up the river to that point. With 
both Algonquins and Hurons there was endless palaver with inter- 
change of presents, promises and prophecies. The latter went so 
far as to anticipate the day when the French, having built posts in 
the West, would intermarry with the Indians and the two peoples 
become one. Champlain, who shared in that hope, could hardly be 
expected to foresee that, whenever that should take place, the 
white man would sink to the level of the red man instead of raising 
the red man to his own. The Indians excused the existing trade 
with the English as being a mere measure of prudence, explain- 
ing that if they shut off their furs entirely from the English mer- 
chants, the latter would simply encourage the Iroquois to enter 
their domain, and would thus bring, not merely competition, but 
war upon themselves and the French. The Indian was in fact more 
astute and long-headed than his French ally. There was scope 
enough on the continent for the expenditure of the energies and 
resources of both English and French acting in friendly rivalry, 
had they been able to see it. Unfortunately they could not. 

Father Le Jeune, the superior of the Mission, had commission- 
ed Fathers Brebeuf , Daniel and Davost to return with the Hurons ; 
but the Indians declined to be responsible for their safety, alleging 
that the Montagnais would attack them, in revenge for the deten- 
tion of their tribesman. The result would be war, and serious 
consequences to future trade would follow, as with hostile Mon- 
tagnais to the north, and savage Iroquois to the south, of the 
great waterway, all access to the trading posts would be shut off. 
The intrepid Jesuits would willingly have risked their lives, but 
the Governor, mindful of the interests of the colony and sensible 
of his weakness from a military point of view, forbade them, and 
on the 6th of August they regretfully saw the fleet of canoes dis- 
appear like a flock of birds. Another year had to elapse before 
they entered on that heroic campaign which won for the Company 
of Jesus such undying glory. That year they spent in studying 



230 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

the habits of the Indian tribes ; in converting to Christianity a few 
— a very few — Montagnais ; in fulfilHng with faithful punctuality 
their clerical functions ; and in baptizing the first negro who came 
to Quebec. He was a lad brought by some traders from Mada- 
gascar and given to Kirke, who left him to the care of the Jesuits. 

The events of the summer made it clear to Champlain that 
there was danger to the company's interests in bringing the In- 
dians of the Great Lakes so far east with their furs, and he there- 
fore took steps towards establishing new posts and re-establish- 
ing old ones further up the river. The first he founded proved 
to be of little importance; it was situated on the Island of St. 
Croix, near the Richelieu Rapids, fifty miles above Quebec, where 
the river contracts and the current at times becomes dangerous. 
It was soon found necessary to place the mart of traffic still fur- 
ther west, and the company therefore ceded to the Society of 
Jesus six hundred acres at Three Rivers on condition of their 
erecting thereon a suitable building. Three Rivers was thus re- 
stored to its former importance, but only for a short period : Mon- 
treal was founded in 1641, and within twenty years had monopo- 
lized the trade of the West. 

Champlain, having seen his guests paddle away lighter than 
they came, and the company's warehouse filled with the cargoes 
of one hundred and forty canoes, a plentiful freight for his return- 
ing fleet, which this year sailed for France on August 16, earlier 
than usual, turned his energies to the fulfillment of a vow 
made during his banishment, that if he were allowed by 
Providence to revisit Quebec, restored to French rule, he would 
build a chapel to Notre Dame de la Recouvrance (Our Lady of 
the Restoration). 

The chapel in question is supposed by Abbe Ferland to have 
been erected where the English cathedral now stands ; but Laver- 
diere is probably correct in assigning to it some remains found by 
him to the east of the present French cathedral. It was the second 
church built in Quebec, the first having been the little wooden 
chapel erected by theRecollets in the Lower Town, which was prob- 
ably burned during the English occupation, together with the store 
and the habitation, which adjoined it. The chapel of Notre Dame 



NOTRE DAME DE LA RECOUVRANCE. 



de la Recouvrance was therefore the one place of worship in Que- 
bec till it was burned in 1640; for the chapel attached to the Jesuit 
college was not commenced until 1650; nor used for divine service 
till the first Sunday of Advent, 1653. The community was in a 
temper of mind to be impressed keenly by religious in- 
fluences. Father le Jeune (Relation of 1634, page 2) de- 
scribes the effect which the services of the church, per- 
formed in this humble chapel, had upon the community. 
Greater austerity cannot have pervaded a Puritan town in Massa- 
chusetts. Champlain set the example at the castle. He forbade 
all idle talk at meals, and prevented it by having a book of secular 
history read at breakfast, and at supper the lives of the Saints. 
In the morning, at midday, and at evening the bell sum- 
moned the household to prayers. If Champlain had coquetted 
with heresy and heretics in his younger days, he was now making 
ample amends. A veritable revival, indeed, seems to have taken 
place among the least impressionable class of the community. One 
sinner, who had committed some offence in Carnival week, walked 
barefoot in the snow half a league to the Jesuit chapel to confess 
and obtain absolution, and during Lent the soldiers and artisans, 
usually so lax, who composed the major part of the population, 
not only submitted willingly to the prescribed fasts, but subjected 
themselves to discipline thirtyfold more severe than was imposed. 
So delighted was the good father that, breaking into poetry, he 
declared that "the winter, cold as it was in New France, was 
never so severe as to blight the blossoms of Paradise, which there 
bloomed the year around." 

If we may trust the Relation, the good work prospered also 
among the Indians. Yet one is rather taken aback by the bellicose 
advice which the superior gives, when he recommends, as the 
most effective method of spreading the Gospel among the Hurons, 
making \\'ar on their enemies, the Iroquois. The experiment 
was followed. It certainly resulted in the conversion of the 
Hurons, but only after nearly the whole nation had been exter- 
minated in the process. Anotlicr piece of advice was more in 
harmony with his religious profession, namely to try and wean 
the Indians from their roving habits. The experience of nearly 



232 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

three centuries proves that, as long as wild game exists, the hunt- 
ing instinct in the savage cannot be repressed. Even half-breeds 
like the Hurons of Lorette take grudgingly to agriculture, but en- 
gage with all the ardor of their ancestors in the hunt. In the 
West the Indian of the plains resisted the blandishments of 
civilization till the buffalo had been killed off, and the stimulus 
and excitement of the chase were denied him. It is discouraging 
after reading the enthusiastic description of the work of the Jes- 
uit Fathers among the Montagnais, to visit the camp of their de- 
scendants to-day. Two centuries and a half have wrought num- 
berless changes all around them, but left them stationary and 
savage still. 

The spring fleet brought out two more Jesuit priests. Fathers 
Lalemant and Buteux, and Brother Jean Liegeois. There were 
thus in the colony eight priests and two brothers, forming perhaps 
even a larger proportion of the total population than before the 
EngHsh occupation. They soon began to scatter: Fathers Bre- 
beuf and Daniel ascended to Three Rivers to await there the arri- 
val of the Indians, and found a house built on the territory which 
the company had ceded to them, at the m'outh of the St. Maurice 
River. The Hurons came down, but only in small bands. War 
had broken out with the Iroquois, and the Hurons had met with 
serious reverses, losing 200 dead and 100 prisoners, according to 
their reckoning; numbers which may safely be divided by ten. 
Not even the strong motives of trade could induce them to ap- 
proach the country of their terrible enemies. When it was pro- 
posed that they should carry back two priests and some French 
laymen, they hesitated long, wavering between their desire to 
propitiate the French and their fear of offending their Algonquin 
allies, whose country they must traverse, and who were bitterly 
opposed to the passage of the white men. At length, under the 
persuasion of Duplessis and de I'Espinez, and after stipulating 
that the company should buy their stock of tobacco, and that 
the priests should do their full share of paddling, they con- 
sented to take two ecclesiastics and one French layman. Fath- 
ers Brebeuf and Daniel were the missionaries chosen. Subse- 
quently Father Davost and five more laymen were given passage 



THE FIRST CANADIAN SEIGNEUFL 



by other bands of Hurons. Thus began that memorable mission 
of the Jesuits to the Hurons which won for four of its members-— 
Jogues, Daniel, Lalemant and Brebeuf — crowns of martyrdom, 
and which exhibited in heroic action the self-denial and courage 
which the system of Ignatius Loyola can inspire in its adherents, 
and which compel our admiration when the service performed is 
untainted by political or worldly considerations. But alas ! 
the close alliance thus established with the French, not being 
backed by adequate physical force, proved the ruin of the 
Hurons and the forerunner of numberless ills to the un- 
fortunate colony. Henceforth the Hurons were to know no 
peace or rest till the small remnant of the nation, after being 
chased from Lake Huron to the Island of Orleans, and then 
from refuge to refuge, found shelter in 1693 picturesque 
village of Lorette, near Quebec. Little could the Huron hunters, 
when they wavered between the entreaties of the French on the 
one hand and the warnings of their Indian allies on the other, have 
foreseen through the long vista of anxious years the disasters to 
their tribe which were to follow in rapid succession their self-sacri- 
ficing act. 

Father le Jeune, as in duty bound, devotes the long memoirs of 
1634 to the doings of himself and his order in their role as Indian 
missionaries. A minute and interesting account of his wondrous 
journey with a band of Montagnais ; a description of the manners 
and customs of these Indians ; and the story of the departure of 
the missionaries and their arduous journey to the Great Lakes 
compose his principal topics. We could have wished that he had 
given us a little more secular history. One paragraph which he 
does devote to mundane matters imparts a piece of news of prime 
importance. It tells us of the arrival of Mons. Giffard, who was 
to be the first landowner to do homage as a seigneur in New 
France. 

The priests and seigneurs were henceforth to be tlie two social 
forces of the colony, which means that the people were to be dis- 
couraged from thinking for themselves or from taking that in- 
terest in public affairs which individual ownership of land 
engenders. The feudal principle expressed by the aphorism "Nulla 



234 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

terre sans Seigneur," was to be carried out to the full in Canada. 
In the old land, absolute monarchy had in its struggle with the 
great feudal lords come off conqueror, though the land tenure 
remained feudal in France up to the time of the Revolution. Still 
to Cardinal Richelieu, as to the French people at large, feudalism 
was more congenial than democracy ; and its appearance in a mod- 
ified form in New France cannot, therefore, be a matter of sur- 
prise. As a system it asserted the right of the King to the 
fealty of his subjects, and his control over the land was 
thereby explicitly recognized. Thus class distinctions and a 
modest semblance of aristocracy were preserved ; the seig- 
neurs, forming a semi-aristocratic class, would support and 
not oppose the Church, and through their influence the Cardinal's 
desire to impose unity of doctrine and strict submission to ec- 
clesiastical domination would be furthered. By these measures an 
impressive antiquity was stamped on New France, and Quebec, 
as the seat of government, became an epitome of the middle ages, 
where the Governor, as representative of the King, the Seigneur 
Dominant, held his court, and received the homage of his seign- 
eurs in person or by deputy, and where the priests ruled over the 
conduct and consciences of men, as arbitrarily as though Luther 
and Calvin had never resisted the authority of the Church in 
Europe. For more than another century the Governor of Canada 
remained an anomaly on the American continent, and Quebec an 
anachronism ; as picturesque in its religious, social and official life 
as in its natural situation. Even now so tenaciously and tenderly 
does Quebec cling to its associations with the past that its civil 
law is founded on the Coutume de Paris, a feudal system replaced 
by the Code Napoleon in old France, and abolished everywhere 
except in the old French province of Lower Canada. 

The grant of all the land in New France to the company of One 
Hundred Associates was conditional, and the conditions neces- 
sarily differed from those attached to feudal grants in France. 
The real and avowed purpose in Canada was to encourage emi- 
gration ; consequently the alienation of land under conditions most 
likely to favor that object was obligatory on the company. It was 
deemed that this object would be best attained, and in a manner 



A FEUDAL LAND TENURE. 



that would harmonize with the national habits and instincts, by 
giving the land to the company of New France "forever in full 
property, justice and lordship," but on condition that the com- 
pany "distribute the same to those who should inhabit the said 
country, and to others." Grants were, therefore, given of small 
tracts to actual settlers, like Hebert, cii fief noble, and of large 
ones to seigneurs, who were under obligation to cede the land 
to actual settlers in sub fief, or on a rent charge ; and, to induce the 
settlers to take up land, the seigneurs had to provide them 
with carding and flour mills, where their produce could 
be rendered available for use. The company was the vassal of 
the King, and the censitaires, or tenants, were vassals of the com- 
pany or of their grantees, the seigneurs. The King reserves from 
the company the right of fealty and homage, and the appoint- 
ment of officers of Royal Courts, who should be named and pre- 
sented to him by the said associates when it should be deemed 
proper to establish such courts. 

Under such legal conditions the Sieur Gififard became the first 
seigneur of Canada. He had been repeatedly to Canada as medi- 
cal officer on one of de Caen's ships, and had enjoyed himself 
while at Quebec in shooting snipe and duck in la Canardiere, and 
had built himself a cabin on the beach where, as narrated, 
the Indian murdered Dumoulin and Madame Hebert's serv- 
ant in 1627. He had been taken prisoner, when returning to 
France in 1628, in the ship of the Sieur de Roquemont ; but he 
harl such pleasant recollections of his experience in the New 
World that he induced Madame Marie Renouard to marry him 
in 1635 share the liardships of his rough Canadian home. 
Father Le Jeune records that on the 4th of June, the feast of 
Pentecost, Captain de Xesle brought his ship into port and had as 
passengers Mons. Giffard, his whole family, and several immi- 
grants whom he was l)ringing out as settlers. His wife was brave 
in tluis following her luishanfl. for she was sliortlv to be confined 
of a daughter, the event taking place on Trinity Sunday, a week 
after landing. 

This sturdy couple were of just tlie stnfF to trv tlic first ex- 
periment of the seigneur's life in New France. M. Giffard had 



236 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



selected as the land to be ceded to him his old shooting ground, 
namely a league of the river front below Quebec on the north shore, 
from the discharge of the stream then known as Notre Dame de 
Beauport (Brown's Brook) towards the Falls of Montmorenci, by- 
one and one-half leagues in depth. This area was extended in 1653 
to four leagues in depth. As in the case of all seignorial grants, 
this was no absolute gift of land. The King, as freeholder, had 
conditionally substituted the company in his rights, and the com- 
pany in its turn substituted the seigneur in some of its rights, but 
neither the company nor the seigneur was absolute owner of the 
soil, in the sense in which private persons can own it in 
Great Britain and the United States. Such absolute ownership 
by individuals was abhorrent to the ideas of feudalism. Even the 
feudal lord was supposed to own and use the land only for the 
benefit of his feudatories. 

The conditions under which grants were made to the Cana- 
dian seigneurs differed. In some few cases the seigneur possessed 
"Le droit de Haute, Moyenne et Basse Justice" (All powers of 
life and death), but, even when these extreme feudal rights were 
granted, they were never exercised. In several cases the grant 
from the king or the company was made on condition that the 
land granted should be alienated to actual settlers. Therein these 
grants differed from feudal grants in Old France, where aUena- 
tion of the land was absolutely forbidden. Otherwise the forms 
and conditions of feudalism in the old world were more or less 
exactly transferred to Canada. Generally speaking, the vassal of 
the King or the company, the seigneur, was required to do hom- 
age at the castle of St. Louis on each mutation of possession, as 
well as to pay the Seigneur Dominant a piece of gold and the 
whole or part of one year's rental. The seigneur's vassal, the 
tenant or censitaire, was bound to do homage to the seigneur and 
to pay cens et rentes as rental, consisting of one or two sous per 
acre and half a bushel of oats. He was also obliged to grind his 
corn at the seigneur's mills, giving in payment generally one- 
fourteenth of the yield. The rental was so insignificant that it 
would not have repaid the seigneur the trouble and cost of re- 
cruiting the settlers, and of organizing and superintending the 



SEIGNEUR AND CENSITAIRE. 



government of the seignory, had he not possessed the further right 
of levying what were called lods et ventes, or one-twelfth the 
amount of every sale of property and real estate made by a 
censitaire, or tenant. When property passed at death to a direct 
heir no such tax was due. The lods et ventes, payable by the 
farmer or censitaire to the seigneur as a tax on every transfer of 
his holding, corresponded to the qiiinze or tax, which the seigneur 
was bound to pay to the Seigneur Dominant whenever there was 
a change of sovereign. The lods et ventes in time became an in- 
tolerable burden, and interfered so seriously with the transfer of 
property, that, by the edict of 171 1, the seigneurs were obliged 
to commute for an equitable sum, when a censitaire desired to ac- 
quire a title to his land in free and common socage. This com- 
pulsory condition, under which the seigneur owned his land, made 
the actual abolition of the seignorial tenure under the law of 1854 
legal and equitable. Conservative as was France under the old 
regime, and ignorant as its rulers often were of the real require- 
ments of Canada, whether as a proprietary colony at the outset, or 
a crown colony afterwards, the seignorial customs were repeatedly 
altered by edict in order to meet the changing conditions of the 
country. They were never so modified, however, as to give the sub- 
ject the right to own the land unconditionally or to alienate it ab- 
solutely from the crown, though the gradual tendency was towards 
greater liberty of tenure. 

In the old concession made to the Sieur de la Roche he was 
authorized to grant lands in the form of Fiefs, Seignories, Chat- 
tcllenies. Earldoms, Viscounties and Baronies. Thirty years 
elapsed between the date of this document and the chartering of 
the company of Canada. The feudal ideas of land tenure still 
formed an inseparable part of the social structure of France, but 
the growth of monarchical power had meanwhile so far modified 
the views of statesmen with regard to government, that no such 
powers were conferred on the Company of the One Hundred 
Associates as de la Roche had been invested with. On the con- 
trary, the feudal system was stretched almost beyond recognition, 
when the vassal of the crown was not merely allowed, but com- 
pelled, to cut up the fiefs into small holdings for the purpose of 



238 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

encouraging the creation of a semi-independent agricultural class. 
The Canadian feudal system of land tenure was, of course, repug- 
nant to the English system of individual ownership, which 
under the influence of Protestantism, was becoming the dominant 
principle in the land policy of the Teutonic nations. It had, how- 
ever, the effect of creating what the great Cardinal intended, 
namely, a distinctly French community with a nice gradation of 
dignities and interests, tending to bind together instead of 
dissociating the various elements of the social body. It did in fact 
perform this service so effectually that all the forces of disintegra- 
tion which have since been at work have not availed to disturb the 
homogeneity of French Canada, or obliterate the institutions of 
Old France in America. The Cardinal's plans failed, however, 
of their immediate and principal purpose — the encouragement of 
immigration; even to-day the Frenchman is no more desirous of 
leaving his beautiful home in Normandy or Provence, to take up 
land in the wilderness, though offered gratuitously under the Teu- 
tonic allodial system, than he was two centuries and a half ago to 
accept it, under the feudal tenure, from a Canadian seigneur. The 
failure of the seigneurs or the company to settle New France as 
rapidly as the less attractive shores of New England or Virginia 
were being peopled, depended upon more deeply seated causes 
than the respective systems of land tenure in New England and 
New Erance. 

Giffard did homage for his seignory on the last day of Decem- 
ber, 1635, before Marc Antoine de Bras de Fer, Sieur de Chas- 
teaufort (Lieutenant Governor). He promised to follow the 
laws and ordinances concerning which he should be enjoined and 
notified, and to render fealty and homage for the land of 
Beauport, holding it expressly of the fort and castle of Quebec. 
Champlain had died a week before, or else he would have rep- 
resented the King and the company in this act of fealty, which 
would have seemed to him a realization of his dreams of the ex- 
tension to New France of the power and institutions of the parent 
state. 

The seigneur of Beauport secured a building site in town and 
erected his city residence near the castle. Thus was inaugurated 



GOOD OLD DAYS IN CANADA. 



the social life of Quebec, which during the French regime was a 
faint reflection of the bright side of French society, for in the 
town residence of many a seigneur who brought his family to 
the capital for the winter months, the gayety of a French salon 
was repeated. Until the approach of political decay, more than a 
century later, the influence of the clergy was sufficiently strong to 
repress any approach to the license which was an unfortunate 
feature of court and aristocratic life in Old France. 

The effect of the seignorial system in fusing the people into 
a harmonious whole was very notable. Though originating in 
class distinctions, it completely obliterated class hostility. The 
Abbe Casgrain graphically describes the actual result of a seig- 
norial concession under the old regime. ''The whole colonization 
system of New France rested on two men," he says, "the priest and 
the seigneur, who walked side by side and extended mutual help 
to one another. The censitaire, who was at the same time the 
parishioner, had two rallying points, the church and the manor 
house. The interests of these were generally identical, inasmuch 
as the limits of the seignory were with few exceptions coterminous 
with those of the parish. Every fall, as Michaelmas approached, 
(nth November) the seigneur warned his censitaires at the church 
door after mass, that their cens et rentes were payable. As soon 
as the winter roads were good the manor house became the 
centre of as lively activity as the preshyt^re or parish house to-day 
when the inhabitants assemble to pay their tithes. Some arrived 
in carioles, some on sleighs, bringing with them a capon or two, 
oats by the bushel, or other products of their land. The old re- 
devance amounted to only two livres per acre of frontage by forty- 
two acres in depth, and to one sou rental per year. The censi- 
taire who owned four acres by forty-two in depth had paid for 
his farm only eight francs, and was liable for only an annual 
rental of four sous per front arpent." 

In the old days land was seldom transferred, and the revenue, 
therefore, was much less than afterwards accrued, to certain seig- 
neurs, from lods et ventes, when the population had become more 
migratory, and the shifting of values of real estate tempted the 
occupant to sell. 



240 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

It was a frightfully cold winter, that of 1634-5. The 
river was frozen from shore to shore. The Indians died from 
famine in great numbers, and in the new Jesuit settlement of 
Three Rivers several deaths occurred from scurvy. The fleet 
of the following spring arrived late, owing to the heavy ice 
off the coast and in the Gulf. Captain Duplessis Bochard with a 
fleet of six ships did not reach Tadousac till early in July, and 
one belated ship, commanded by Captain Butemps, did not reach 
port till August. They brought out six priests, but how many 
immigrants the Jesuit chroniclers do not tell us. There were 
now in the colony fourteen priests and four brothers. The sum- 
mer was uneventful. The Huron hunters came down with their 
furs in July, bringing letters from the Jesuit missionaries con- 
tradicting the reports of death and misfortune, which had reached 
their brethren in the East. All were well and reported a 
hearty welcome by the Indians of Lake Huron. This encouraged 
Champlain to repeat his exhortation to the dusky warriors to ac- 
cept civilization and adopt Christianity, and fit their daughters to 
become the wives of his French followers. Could he have been 
so enthusiastic as to believe in the possible realization of such a 
scheme? At any rate it is pleasant to think that his hopes 
ran high at the very time when he was stricken down by 
paralysis. He lingered for two and half months and died 
on Christmas day, 1635. He was buried with all the honors 
the garrison, the church, and the people could confer on a 
man whom all loved and respected; for, into whatever errors 
of judgment he may have fallen, he never committed an intentional 
injustice or acted from low, selfish, or mercenary motives. His 
friend, Father Lalemant, performed the funeral service, and Father 
le Jeune delivered the funeral oration in the church he had 
himself built in honor of the Virgin; and they buried him 
in a scpidcre particulier, but where? Not a hint is given as to 
the place of his interment. Mr. O'Donnell, a city official of Que- 
bec, disinterred from a stone vault under the Little Champlain 
street steps, in i860, a coffin containing human bones which he 
argued were the remains of the illustrious founder of Quebec. 
But the church he founded, and which he wished to endow with 



THE DEATH OF CHAMPLAIN. 



241 



most of his worldly goods, was in the Upper Town, and under it or 
beneath its choir, and nowhere else, he must have wished to be 
laid to rest. The Church of Notre Dame de la Recouvrance, with 
its register, containing, it must be assumed, the record of his death 
and interment, was burned in 1640. Monsieur Laverdiere believed 
that he had discovered and traced the remains of the foundation of 
the old church in the yard of the Presbytere in Buade street. 
These foundations, if they belonged to the old church, would in- 
dicate that it did not point east and west, for what Laverdiere 
assumes to be the choir lay diagonally under part of the apse of 
the present basilica. That this was the orientation of Cham- 
plain's church is confirmed by the finding, as recorded by Abbe 
George Cote, when some repairs were being made in the vaults of 
the basilica in 1877, ^ skeleton, whose skull instead of lying in 
the direction of the nave pointed towards the choir. As no record 
of any such interment exists in the archives of the cathedral, the 
remains are supposed to be those of some one buried under the 
choir of Notre Dame de la Recouvrance. If this supposition be 
correct, then the body of the illustrious founder of Quebec may 
also repose where it, above all others, has the right of sepulchre, 
beneath the choir of the cathedral, raised to the dignity of a ba- 
silica on the 200th anniversary of the foundation of the episcopate 
of Quebec. 

Father Vimont, in the Relation of 1640, in describing the fire 
which swept away their home, says : "It reduced to ashes the 
chapel of Monsieur le Gouverneur and the parish church." This 
would imply that there were two ecclesiastical edifices, or that 
there was a chapel in the parish church which went by the name of 
the Governor's chapel, presumably because Champlain's remains 
reposed there. It is contrary to the known character of Governor 
Montmagny to imagine that he would ever so far depart from 
the simplicity and habits of his illustrious predecessor as to erect 
a chapel for his private devotions. The Jesuit fathers distinctly 
state that in his humility he always knelt with other parishioners 
to receive the sacrament. It may naturally have been supposed 
that it would act as a stimulus to devotion to consecrate, as the 
Governor's chapel, a spot almost sanctified by the remains of 



242 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

Champlain. The sepulcre particulier of Champlain must have been 
a vault; for his friend, Father Raymboult, who died in 1642, was 
buried beside him. Nor was he the first who was thus honored. In 
1641 the register records that on the 2d of May of that year, 
Mons. Francois Grand-mont, a prominent member of the Com- 
pany and the original owner of Sillery, died in the room under 
the sacristy and chapel of Quebec. This chapel was in the 
second story of the company's house, which was temporarily 
occupied as a place of worship after the burning of Notre Dame 
de la Recouvrance. Here Monsieur Grand-mont had spent his 
winter and here he died. On the 21st, after the office of the dead 
and solemn mass had been sung, he was buried, so the register 
says, in the chapel of Monsieur de Champlain. It does not say in 
the actual vault. Thence we should infer that the vault in the Gov- 
ernor's chapel of the Church of Notre Dame de la Recouvrance 
had passed uninjured through the fire, and that over it had been 
built a chapel. This chapel is mentioned as a landmark in a deed 
by Governor D'Aillebout in February, 1649, when reserving an 
acre of land in the town of Quebec for public purposes, contre la 
chapelle Champlain. But in the maps of Quebec made in 1660 
and 1664 see Faillon, Histoire de la Colonic Frangaise, vol. 3, 
page 373), this chapel does not appear. It had probably been ab- 
sorbed by the large parish church, the predecessor of the cathedral, 
and of the present basilica, which appears on the map as a notable 
feature of the town. Within its foundation walls, therefore, may 
yet be found that sepulcre particulier, with its precious contents. 
It is a grateful thought that the first governor of New France 
rests near Frontenac, Callieres, Vaudreuil and Longueil in this 
pantheon of French heroes.* Only a tablet records the fact that 
these remains rest there in peace. A monument should be erected 
worthy of his fame and achievements ; and there is little doubt that 
this could easily be done by means of contributions gratefully sub- 
scribed by men of both nationalities and every creed in Canada 
and the United States. 

Champlain left a will by which he bequeathed to the church he 
had founded in Quebec all his personal ei¥ects in Canada, 300 

*See a full discussion of the subject by Dr. Dionne in his chapter on " The 
Tomb of Champlain," Etudes Historiques. 



A NOBLE HISTORICAL CHARACTER. 



livres in the stock of the original company of One Hundred As- 
sociates, 900 livres in the auxiliary company's stock, and 400 livres 
in cash. But when he married Helene Boulle there was a marriage 
contract by which husband and wife mutually bequeathed each to 
the other whatever they might die possessed of. His wife consented 
to the will, but his cousin opposed it, on the ground that it con- 
tradicted the marriage contract. The will was set aside, the judge 
allowing to the Chapelle de Notre Dame only the proceeds of the 
sale of Champlain's personal effects, some 900 livres, which were 
expended in vessels for the altar. His widow survived him nine- 
teen years, dying in a nunnery of her own founding. Like most 
converts — for it must be remembered that she was a Huguenot in 
her early life — she was so extreme in her devotion to her adopted 
faith that, even during her husband's life, she is said to have de- 
cided to enter a convent and take the veil. The laws of the church 
denied her that gratification unless her husband would also re- 
nounce his marriage vows and adopt a religious life. This the old 
sailor and busy man of the world declined to do, looking on his 
work as more valuable to his country and more pleasing to God 
than would have been the donning of a clerical or monastic habit. 

He lives in history as a brave, single-hearted sailor and ex- 
plorer, who had a clear conception of duty and followed his con- 
victions without swerving or wavering. Few men are honest 
enough to tell the story of their life as simply as he did, without 
exaggeration, or self-laudation, or insincere self-derogation, or 
cant. He was not a great soldier or a great statesman. Had he 
been the first, he would have pursued with more determination 
and method his policy of subduing the native tribes opposed to 
him ; and had he l)ccn tlic second, he would ])roba])ly have suc- 
ceeded by diplomacy in creating a strong confederacy out of those 
with which he was on friendly terms. Nevertheless, if not 
in the highest sense a great man, he was endowed with a 
courage and straightforwardness of purpose that were proof 
against a thousand disappointments and broken promises. These 
virtues buoyed him up till, after seventeen years of hope deferred 
yet of faith unshaken, he saw Quebec growing from a post into a 
town, and Canada assuming the character of a colony. 



CHAPTER XL 



The Arrival of Governor Montmagny, and the Establish- 
ment of the Ursuline and Hospital Nuns at Quebec. 

The company had provided for the contingency of Cham- 
plain's death by depositing with Father le Jeune a commission in 
favor of Mare Antoine Bras de Fer de Chasteaufort, of Three 
Rivers, as his temporary successor. The document was read after 
the funeral service. The colonists acquiesced. The Governor 
was prostrate from paralysis when the fall fleet sailed, but the 
news of his death having actually occurred must have been sent 
to France through some port on the Atlantic seaboard ; other- 
wise Charles Hault de Montmagny would not have been nomi- 
nated to the governorship, and his appointment confirmed by 
the Cardinal on the loth of March. With such expedi- 
tion was a fleet equipped to escort the new official to the seat of 
his government, that he arrived before Quebec on the evening of 
the nth of June, to the intense relief of the townsfolk. They 
knew that France had embarked in a great war (The Thirty 
Years' War), in alliance, with the Swedes, the Germans and 
the Dutch against Spain, and they dreaded that Spain, exasperat- 
ed by the aid given to the Protestant cause by Catholic France, 
might attempt to wreak on the still feeble colony the same awful 
vengeance which she had inflicted by the hand of Menendez upon 
Ribault's colony in Florida. But even if such a fate were spared 
them, they feared that the mother country, in the throes of 
a great war, would need all her resources to meet the at- 
tack of Spain, and might neglect them as she had done be- 
fore Kirke's invasion. Great therefore was the joy of the whole 
community when they recognized in the new Governor a soldier 
of some renown, and a knight of the order of St. John of Malta. 
To the priests the appointment of a celibate, with no wife to 
tempt him to change the austere routine of the castle life into a 
round of courtly gayeties, must have given promise of another 



GOVERNOR MONTMAGNY AND THE IROQUOIS. 



regime of strict and edifying fulfilment of all religious duties and 
observances. 

The profound piety of the new Governor was demonstrated by 
his stopping a procession on its way to the inaugural service in 
the Church of Notre Dame de la Recouvrance, and falling on his 
knees before a cross which met his view. In the same spirit, im- 
mediately after the Te Deum had been sung and the keys of the 
Chateau and Fort delivered to him by Monsieur de Chasteaufort, 
he stood sponsor at the baptismal font for an Indian child. 

In July of this year (1636) there was a large gathering at 
Quebec of Montagnais Indians from Tadousac, when the Gover- 
nor had his first lesson in diplomacy from these wily savages. 
Their chief desire was, as usual, to induce the French to become 
their allies against the Iroquois, and" their orators could always 
adduce cogent arguments that appealed to the self-interest and 
pride of the French. On the other hand, the French had other 
than motives of gain in urging the red men to forbear trading 
either with the Dutch on the Hudson or with the English poachers 
in the Gulf. Three arquebuses were found in the camp of a Mon- 
tagnais band at Three Rivers. The Governor, indeed, was soon to 
learn that the bravest race of Indians on the continent were already 
in possession of firearms, and that thus the superiority which the 
few white men enjoyed in virtue of their weapons was in danger 
of disappearing. After this council the new Governor ascended 
the river to Three Rivers, which had now supplanted Quebec as a 
trading post, just as Montreal in time replaced Three Rivers, 
the danger from the Iroquois making it increasingly desirable to 
shift the market as near as possible to the source of supply. 

Ere he left Three Rivers Montmagny was called upon to 
bring his military skill into exercise against this formidable 
foe, a very different one from any he had ever faced. The Iro- 
quois, to the number of five hundred, had descended the Riche- 
lieu, and, intercepting a fleet of Hurons, had captured two of 
the most noted Huron chiefs, several youths destined for 
the Huron seminary at Quebec, and other less important 
members of the tribe. Besides seizing the traders they se- 
cured rich booty in their stock of furs. The Governor with- 



246 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

drew the French, the friendly Montagnais and Algonquins, 
and the Hurons who had escaped, into the fort of Three Rivers, 
which consisted of a mere breastwork, and there prepared for an 
attack. To each of the six priests he assigned a special duty. 
Messengers were sent to Quebec for help, and aid was at once 
sent him. The fleet was in Quebec, and their crews were glad to 
be enlisted in such an exciting enterprise. The ship's boats from 
Mons. de ITsle's ship, manned by a number of his crew, were 
the first to arrive at Three Rivers, and a schooner followed, com- 
manded by Captain Raymbaut. Nor were the prominent citizens 
of Quebec backward in responding to the call. Sieurs Couillard 
and Giffard and other notables hurried to the front. But before 
they arrived the Governor had armed the two ships' boats, 
one commanded by the Sieur Desdames and the other by Captain 
Fournier, and, under their protection, proceeded in his own row- 
boat to attack the fleet of canoes and drive the Iroquois out of 
Lake St. Peter, so as to reopen the river to the Huron traders. 
Aware of his design and preparations the foe had disappear- 
ed, leaving at the mouth of the Richelieu traces of their barbarous 
cruelty, but carrying off most of their prisoners, together with the 
furs, which they meant to barter with the Dutch at Fort 
Nassau. The volunteers must have returned to Quebec with 
gloomy forebodings, for the success of the Iroquois in 
an attack made under the very guns of the fort, and before 
the eyes of the Governor himself, was sure to embolden them to 
undertake still more venturesome enterprises. They were being 
supplied with guns and ammunition by the Dutch in exchange for 
their furs. The very booty they had just carried off across Lake 
Champlain into the valley of the Hudson meant many guns and 
hundreds of rounds of ammunition, which, if directed against the 
200 inhabitants of Quebec before the fleet arrived or after its de- 
parture, might involve the destruction of the colony. Montmagny, 
immediately on assuming the government, had strengthened the 
river fort at Quebec by a redoubt facing the river, and mounted 
additional cannons on it. The Indians, while powerless to en- 
ter the fort, could yet seriously harass the inhabitants and destroy 
all outlying settlements. There were, in fact, grounds for the keen- 



A PIOUS COMMUNITY. 



247 



est apprehension, as subsequent events fully proved. The 
bold attack on the Huron fleet was the beginning of an Indian 
war which lasted, with occasional lulls, for more than a century. 

The Governor waited at Three Rivers till the end of August, 
hoping that the Indians would regain courage and appear; but 
as the fleet for France was about to sail, he and Father le Jeune 
were obliged to descend to Quebec. They had hardly landed 
w^hen news of the arrival of 150 Hurons at Three Rivers was 
received. Montmagny sent his lieutenant, the ChevaHer de ITsle, 
to meet them, and Mons. le Jeune accompanied him. It was ne- 
cessan,' to show more than customary courtesy and considera- 
tion to the savages, for an epidemic, which they attributed 
to the machinations of the French, and especially to the in- 
cantations of the missionaries, had broken out on the 
Georgian Bay and was ravaging the tribe. The fleet there- 
fore sailed away with lighter cargoes than usual, and with 
a budget of bad news. This was certainly, for the Governor, 
a discouraging introduction to his duties ; but to cheer him 
there returned Fathers Daniel and Davost, with the Huron 
traders, who brought back glowing accounts of their mission- 
Sivy success, and a description of the beautiful Georgian Bay, and 
of the lakes and rivers and the illimitable country that lay be- 
tween the St. Lawrence and Lake Huron. They moreover told 
what they had heard of the still vaster waters and wider lands that 
lay beyond to the west. But these almost fabulous stories do not 
seem to have excited the Governor's imagination, which might 
well have glowed at the thought of the greatness awaiting the 
parent State through the expansion of her colonial empire — an 
empire that would be hers without challenge, as neither the col- 
onists in Virginia, nor the sedate Puritans of New England, nor 
the sluggish Dutch of New Netherland, had ventured far enough 
away from their homes on the sea coast to get a glimpse of the 
vast interior of the Continent. 

The winter was probably the season in which the religious 
enthusiasm and social purity mentioned in the letters trans- 
mitted to France, as characterizing society in Quebec, was seen to 
most advantage. The priests could, during that season, watch 



248 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

each of their parishioners and restrain their foibles and 
their faults; but when summer arrived, and with it came the 
fleet full of reckless sailors, a contagion of vice spread ; the whole 
community then suffered a lowering of its religious temperature, 
and fell away very sensibly from its high moral standard. The 
ships occasionally also, despite the prohibition against the impor- 
tation of heresy, landed and left in the colony emigrants tainted 
with what Father le Jeune called "the alleged rehgion," but 
these stray sheep were unable to withstand the arguments of the 
priests and the pressure of public opinion. In short, no one re- 
mained long in the colony who questioned the authority of the 
Church. 

There was even greater and more perfect religious unanimity 
than in the Puritan colonies of New England, though in both com- 
munities religion was the foundation of the State. The directors 
of the company of New France laid it down as an absolute rule 
that "to build up the body of a healthy colony religion is essential, 
being to the State what the heart is to the human body — its most 
vital organ." But the religious spirit of the French colony was less 
gloomy than that of the Puritan commonwealth, and its form of 
worship less severe. Music and color and the dramatically ef- 
fective details of vestment and posture in the altar service, the 
result of the aesthetic expression of the religious feeling of the 
most artistic peoples of southern Europe, were well calculated to 
retain a firm hold on the French colonists to whom they were tra- 
ditionally sacred, and to appeal to the senses of the Indians, edu- 
cated in sign language and picture writing. Both communities 
were pledged to a religious life and missionary propagand- 
ism among the aborigines ; but, looking back over nearly three cen- 
turies, we cannot fail to recognize that primitive Roman Catho- 
licism has retained its influence over the French of Lower Canada 
more effectually than Puritanism, in its primitive form, has main- 
tained its hold on the people of New England. It must be added 
that Roman Catholicism, with its florid, picturesque ritual and less 
abstract creed, has also been more comprehensible to the Indians 
than the metaphysical dogmas of Calvinism. The Jesuit Fathers 
clearly understood this, and the festival of St. Joseph, who is re- 




Cetts figuic cc met cu la page i p. dc laRelation dc Ganadas. 



THE NATIVES DISCUSS THEOLOGY. 



249 



cognized as the patron saint of Canada, was celebrated by a great 
display of fireworks, the Governor himself lighting the set piece 
and explaining to the Indians, through an interpreter, that the 
French were more powerful than even the demons, for they could 
call forth fire at will, and use it when they listed to burn the bodies 
of their enemies. Thus too the feast of Mary, patroness of the 
church of Quebec, was inaugurated by hoisting the royal ensign 
on the bastion of the fort amidst a salvo of artillery and the rattle 
of musketry, and raising a maypole before the church, surmounted 
by three crowns, emblems of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. By such 
means religion and the civil power came to be indissolubly asso- 
ciated in the minds of the Indians.* 

The Governor actively aided the Fathers in their endeavors 
to teach the natives. In the middle of December, after the Mon- 
tagnais had started on their winter's hunt, there remained a band 
of Algonquins camped near the fort. The Governor gave them a 
feast, and while their mouths and their hearts were full, he ex- 
tracted a promise from them to visit betimes the mission house 
of Notre Dame des Anges. Thus commenced a series of con- 
ferences, wherein discussions were by no means one-sided, for the 
Fathers, trained though they were in dialectics, found it difficult 
sometimes to deal with the arguments of their savage opponents. 
The Indians insisted on reasons being given for the fact that since 
the advent of the white men, who pretended to ofifer nothing but 
blessings to them, the mortality of the tribe had so dangerously 
increased as to threaten it with extinction. The priest attributed 

• Rev. John Miller, in his New York Considered and Improved, 1695, 
charges the French with debauching "so many of our Indians as they have made 
Christians & obliged by so doing some of our Mohawks so much yt one of them, 
as I have heard, having run away from us to them & thereupon being upbraided 
with his infidelity in forsaking his old friends, in his own defence made answer 
that he had lived long among the English, but they had never all that while had 
so much love for him as to instruct him in the concerns of his soul & show him 
the way to salvation, which the French had done upon their first Acquaintance 
with him, & therefore he was obliged to love & be faithfull to them, & mgage as 
many of his nation as he could to go along with him dv: to partake of the same 
knowledge & instructions that were afforded & imparted to him, so that it appears 
to be a worke not only of great charity but of almost absolute necessity to endeavor 
the conversion of the five Nations and other Indians, lest they be wholly de- 
bauched by ye French <!t become by Cod's just permission for our ne^^lect therein, 
of faithfull & true friends as they have been hitherto, most dangerous & cruell 
Enemys." Di-hauc/nti^ vc\n%t here be understood in its political sense — as with- 
drawing from an alliance. 



250 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

it to alcohol, but alcohol did not explain the inroads of small-pox. 
Furthermore, the Indians were all aware that it was believed 
among the whites that, as they entered, the aborigines would 
disappear. Yet every endeavor was being made to increase white 
immigration, and they could not reconcile that with the benevolent 
intentions of the Black Robes. It also puzzled the Indians to un- 
derstand wherein resided the benefits of baptism, inasmuch as 
nearly all those whom the priests had baptized, whether young or 
old, had died. This was a fact, inasmuch as, almost without ex- 
ception, those to whom the sacrament had been administered were 
either children about to die, or the aged who had submitted to it 
when death was near. Another difficulty was to reconcile 
the ardent wish expressed by the good Fathers, that they should 
abandon their roving life, with the interest the same good Fathers 
professed to take in them as a nation, for they could not con- 
ceive of life, individual or national, apart from the excitement 
and profits of the chase. Demonology, which was a favorite 
theme with them, also presented perplexities. Why, if God were 
willing to forgive, should devils be excluded from his mercy? The 
good Fathers replied that salvation was extended only to those 
who could hope, whereas despair was the penalty of hell. This 
seemed hardly conclusive, and the mystery of evil continued to 
puzzle them as it has puzzled men in all ages. 

But Christianity as presented in the lives of the priests, and 
later in the glorious devotion to charitable work of the Ursuline 
and Grey Nuns, won more converts than the terrors of hell, not- 
withstanding that these were presented in all their realistic hor- 
rors. The religious leaders of the colony soon reached the 
conclusion that there was less to be gained by arguing with 
the old than by instructing the young. These stern but 
tender-hearted priests looked after the children in the ab- 
sence of the hunters, and, gathering the boys and girls around 
them in the long winter months, taught them to sing and 
pray, and filled their young minds with the story of the Master's 
love and his tenderness for little ones. The second generation of 
the Montagnais and Algonquins, as well as of the Hurons, who 
had come under the teaching of the Church, though they may not 



THE JESUIT "relations." 25 1 

have been specimens of the purest products of Christianity, were 
raised far above the abject savagery of their parents. 

While the missionaries by their devotion and tact were winning 
converts among the Indians, and by their watchfulness insur- 
ing the morals of the colonists, the story of their hardships and 
missionary successes, told in such luminous detail in the Relations, 
and published year by year in France, was kindling ardent enthusi- 
asm among the pious laity at home. As we critically read the Rela- 
tions even to-day, we cannot avoid sharing in the enthusiasm they 
evoked, and forgiving the lapses from accuracy which gave them 
the glamour of romance. For example, Father le Jeune employed 
his literary skill in drawing dreary pictures of the forlorn post as 
it appeared in 1632, and most attractive ones of the thriving town 
into which it had grown within four years, though it had gathered 
in the interval only about 150 inhabitants. But the good Father 
certainly allows his ardor to master his sense of truth when he 
states that on their arrival they found only one inhabitant engaged 
in farming, and that one eager to flee away in order to enjoy the 
offices of the True Faith in Old France. While it is impossible 
to doubt that the zeal of Father le Jeune and his colleagues was 
sincere, the Relations were manifestly written with the triple ob- 
ject of magnifying the missionary work of the Society of Jesus, 
soliciting subscriptions for their great schemes, and glorifying the 
colonization efforts and the religious motives of the company of 
One Hundred Associates and its officers. None the less, the ad- 
vice given by Father le Jeune to intending immigrants is sound, 
and might with advantage be embodied in the emigration litera- 
ture put into circulation to-day. 

The almost monastic regimen imposed on the colonists was oc- 
casionally relieved l)y glimpses of the pageantry of war. The 
Governor and his lieutenant were soldiers and loved ni^rtial dis- 
play. Sentries were posted at tlie castle, and, on every ordinary and 
extraordinary occasion, there was a review of the handful of 
troops and a discharge of firearms. But, better still, MM. 
de Repentigny and de la Potherie had just arrived with six un- 
married daughters, "beautiful as the day," to quote the enthusias- 
tic figure of speech elicited even from the Jesuits by their appari- 



252 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

tion. Order generally prevailed; yet were there unruly spirits 
who regarded the mildest laws as shackles. It was not the day 
of legislative assemblies, however; and the Governor and the 
priests, who made the laws, enforced them rigidly against all 
backsliders, recalcitrants and other offenders. On the 29th 
of December, a pillory was erected before the church, and 
on it was posted a list of crimes, including blasphemy, 
drunkenness, absence from mass on feast days, all punishable 
by exposure in the stocks. It was the season of hilarity, but 
that was not admitted as an excuse by the ecclesiastical censors. 
The pillory had been erected only a week when a public example 
was made of a drunkard, whose crime had been aggravated by 
improper language. On January 22nd a fine of 50 livres was im- 
posed on a reckless fellow who had made an Indian drunk. The 
French accused the English under Kirke of being the first to 
demoralize the Indians by giving them a taste for intoxicating 
liquor. If the Huguenot Company was as sordid and as 
regardless of all moral obligations as they are represented to 
have been, it is much to be wondered at that they did not use ar- 
dent spirits in trading with the redskins before Kirke's occupancy. 
Whoever was guilty, the Roman Catholic Church of Canada has 
from the first offered a magnificent and consistent opposition to 
the sale of intoxicating liquors to the native Indians. More 
was done in this matter by moral suasion than by law. 'Father 
Lalemant and Father du Quen took up their residence in town, 
near the chapel of Notre Dame de la Recouvrance, and were 
therefore able to perform early and late mass, matins and vespers, 
as well as to chatechise the children. These duties they attended 
to with so much zeal and success that the chapel had to be enlarged 
into a church before it was more than a year old. 

In addition to the fifteen Jesuit Fathers and four Brothers, 
there had arrived two secular priests, who had been drawn to the 
colony by family and friendly relations. Father Gilles Nicolet had 
crossed the ocean to join his brother Jean, the famous Indian in- 
terpreter and explorer. Father Nicolet devoted himself to the 
spiritual needs of the habitants on Giffard's seignory of Beau- 
port, and also of those who were sprinkled along the river as 



MESSIRE NoEL-OE BRVSLARD DE SilLERY 
COMYANDEVR DV TEMPLE DF/*' Q % 
TROVrS FONDATEVR DE LA r '- 

MAISON DE LA CONG DE LA t % 
MISSICT^^ DETROYES DECE1»^ ^ 





Portrait of Sieur de Sillery. 



THE JESUIT COLLEGE. 



far as Cap Tourmente. The other priest was Mons. Lesueur, who 
had come out from St. Sauveur in Normandy, of which place 
he was cure, to join his friend Jean Bourdon, whom we have met 
as the pyrotechnist who made the fireworks which the Governor 
himself set off on the feast of St. Joseph. He was the handy man 
of the colony, able to build a house, shoe a horse, fire a cannon, 
sail a ship and make a chart. He certainly was a useful citizen, 
and was rewarded by the grant in 1637 of fifty arpents of timber 
land, covering part of the present St. John and St. Louis suburbs 
and of the Plains of Abraham. 

When the fleet had sailed, and the people been reduced to do- 
mestic subjects of interest, public attention must have been concen- 
trated on the Jesuit college. The company had deeded to the So- 
ciety in March twelve arpents of land not far from the fort, and as 
a gentleman of Picardy, Mons. Rene Rohault, had bequeathed to 
the society his whole patrimony, and as his father, the Marquis 
de Gamache, had forestalled their enjoyment of this inheritance 
by a gift of sixteen thousand ecus, the society was warranted in 
making its plans on an extensive scale and erecting a substantial 
building. Nothing is more expressive of the unflinching faith of 
the Church in its growth and permanency than the size and 
strengfth of its buildings, which are usually designed for a popu- 
lation of thrice the existing number. The Jesuit college was an 
illustration of this, for it was laid out on a scale which nothing, 
either in the actual condition or immediate prospects of the col- 
ony, seemed to justify. 

The only other important structure under erection near Quebec 
this autumn was also due to Jesuit enterprise. Father le Jeune's 
letter had reiterated his belief that the acceptance of Christianity 
by the natives would be accomplished only by inducing them to 
abandon their roving habits and engage in sedentary occupation. 
The Chevalier, Noel Brulard de Sillery, a Knight of Malta, was 
moved by the eloquent appeals and arguments of the Relations 
to found a mission, where Indians would be induced to settle and 
learn farming and other useful handicrafts. The Father se- 
lected as a site a deep indentation in the rocky barrier which con- 
fines the north shore of the river about a leagTie above the hahita- 



254 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



Hon. There a small meadow could be cleared for cultivation un- 
der the protection of a fort on the overhanging cliffs. The site, as 
it happened, had already been selected for his own use by Mons. 
Frangois de Re, more commonly known as Mons. Gand, a large 
shareholder in the company, who himself resided in Canada. 
He, however, relinquished his rights without hesitation in favor of 
the earnest philanthropist; and the Jesuits at once commenced 
erecting the mission of St. Joseph, which ere long came to be 
known by the name of the benefactor, as the Mission of Sillery. 
He, though averse to notoriety, was unable to hide his good deed. 
In the spring of 1638, the mission house was opened and 
twenty Indians at once camped around it. Thus commenced a 
native settlement which was to be hallowed by many an act of 
devotion and deed of suffering, till abandoned from dread of the 
Iroquois in 165 1. A stone building still stands on the beach sup- 
posed to be the original mission house. In all its architectural 
features it is a type of the country house still erected by the 
French habitant. Sillery is therefore deeply interesting as the 
site of the first attempt made with the set purpose of wean- 
ing the Indian from his roving life, and teaching him habits of 
steady work and patient industry. In those early days the white 
society of Quebec undoubtedly approached nearer to a Chris- 
tian standard than most of our frontier towns do to-day; 
nevertheless the Indian settlements, so earnestly made and so sed- 
ulously watched over by the Jesuit fathers, exercised almost no 
attraction on the tribes at large. From that point of view they 
must be pronounced failures; and in other respects they must 
sorely have tried the patience of the French. 

Of the power of habit and the hopelessness of changing sud- 
denly the whole current of an Indian's family and tribal life, 
bound as he was to it by the most sacred traditions as well as by 
self-interest, the Fathers had painful experience in their Huron 
College of Notre Dame des Anges. The new pupils soon com- 
menced to fret under the restraints imposed on them, and the dis- 
content extended even to the old scholars. The only relief was 
in escape, and this the Indian boys contrived with such ingenuity 
that all but two had paddled away, with ample provisions, before 



AN ECCLESIASTICAL CELEBRATION. 



their design was even suspected. The college was therefore re- 
duced to two scholars, but these were so thoroughly reliable that 
they were entrusted by the Governor with a delicate mission. All 
winter long the little town had been harassed by anxiety as 
to the safety of their countrymen, lay and clerical, resident 
among the Hurons. The tribes in the neighborhood were 
restless. They were known to be greatly exercised over 
the epidemic of small-pox and other ailments, attributed by them 
to the machinations of the French. They were also irritated at 
the refusal of the French, who professed to be their allies, 
to follow and punish the Iroquois. It was feared, there- 
fore, that they might, during the winter, if the disease con- 
tinued virulent, attack in numbers and massacre the scanty white 
population. The Governor was desirous to assure the Indians 
that such an attempt would fail, but that, if made by any reckless 
bands, the crime would be more or less condoned, and the whole 
nation would not be made to suffer. The hostility of the Hurons 
meant the absolute failure of the commercial company. They 
were its best customers, and should their defection be followed by 
an alliance with their kindred, the Iroquois confederacy, the very 
existence of the colony might be imperilled. To pacify them the 
two Huron scholars were sent as ambassadors, for to have des- 
patched one or more Frenchmen alone, on such a mission, might 
simply have aggravated the peril. To strengthen the mission, a 
French trader, one of their reverend instructors, and some Al- 
gonquins as guides accompanied the boys. After many an ad- 
venture and thirty-six days' incessant voyaging between Montreal 
and the Georgian Bay, they reached the Huron bourgade to find 
all well. 

To secure and cement the attachment of the Montagnais and 
Algonquins in the neighborhood of Quebec, they were always 
invited to take part in public ceremonies, and even in re- 
ligious functions, where their paint and feathers made an 
effective contrast with the sombre robes of the priests. "On 
the feast of the glorious Assumption of the Virgin the oc- 
cupants of four of the Indian lodges, who were seeking 
Christian instruction, assembled at the mission to assist in 



256 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

the procession, which was organized in honor of that glorious 
princess, the protector of New as well as of Old France. His ex- 
cellency, the Governor, omitted no accessory which could add to 
the magnificence of the procession. It was a glorious sight to see 
a band of savages march two by two in perfect order, clad in their 
gaudy costumes, and following the French. The cortege moved 
between files of soldiery. The rattle of musketry and the roar of 
cannon fired from the ships and the battery, excited in every 
bosom the keenest joy, profound devotion and ardent thankful- 
ness to that God who was thus bringing to fruition the designs 
of our great king, in the salvation of this benighted people. To 
add to our rejoicing their Indian jugglers (medicine men) 
brought five of their drums which they had used in their heathen 
incantations, and protested, by depositing them with us, that they 
thus abandoned the worship of Belial and would henceforth serve 
only Jesus Christ." The sincere devotion expressed in these 
ceremonies by the head of the colony, the clergy, and the 
people need not be doubted because of a tincture of exaggeration 
which colors the description of it in the Relations. This pro- 
found religious fervor not only influenced deeply the people of 
the early colony, but made so indelible an impression on the 
French-Canadian character that nearly three centuries of subse- 
quent history, including a century and a half of contact with an 
alien race of a differing creed, have but slightly diminished its 
force. 

The influence of Father le Jeune's Relations was demonstrated 
in 1639 by most palpable results. They had the effect of endowing 
Canada with two of the most beneficial organizations of the 
church. There may be a difference of opinion as to the reflex in- 
fluence on mankind of prayers and of ''perpetual adoration" by 
cloistered recluses, male or female. But no man can withhold his 
admiration from the religious devotion and self-abnegation ex- 
pressed in gratuitously tending the sick and educating the ignor- 
ant ; nor should this admiration be denied to devotees, who, by tak- 
ing the vows, and assuming the habit, of a religious order, 
bind themselves yet more effectually to forego the pleasures 
and ordinary occupations of the world, and to live ex- 



FOUNDATION OF THE 



HOTEL-DIEU. 



clusively and perpetually for others. We may doubt whether 
nurses or teachers are best fitted for their special vocation by ex- 
cluding themselves from the routine of social life, shutting 
themselves off from general intercourse with their kind, re- 
nouncing independence of character, and repressing the natural 
growth of their faculties. But, in the case of teaching orders, 
their example, the rigid descipline they observe and en- 
force, and the uniformity of the system they follow, un- 
questionably impress on their pupils a unity of type which tends 
to create and perpetuate national distinctiveness. It is unquestion- 
able that Canada owes the retention of her idiosyncrasies and her 
remarkable homogeneity, as much to the clerical education of her 
boys and girls, as to the patriotic teaching of her secular clergy. 

The distressing stories of famine, as well as all that had been 
told of the superstitious ignorance among the Indians had touched 
many a heart in France, but none responded more ardently and 
practically to the appeals of the Relations than two women of 
family: Marie de Vignerod (Madame de Comballet, Duchess 
d'Aiguillon, the niece of the great Cardinal), and Madame 
de la Peltrie. The Duchess, like other religious women of 
the age, not only looked on the monastic life as the consum- 
mation of perfect piety, but had gone further and actually as- 
sumed, as a novice, the garb of the Carmelites. Her uncle is sup- 
posed to have disapproved of the step, and it is assumed 
that she yielded to his controlling will and returned to the world. 
But whether that be so or not, she continued to be animated by 
fervent zeal, and is said to have sought advice from her special 
director. Saint Vincent de Paul, as to the best method of carrying 
her convictions into practice. As Madame de Comballet, she 
had corresponded with Father le Jeune in 1636 on the subject of 
a hospital in Quebec. The enterprise took shape the following 
year under her auspices and at her charge, for she gave 22,400 
livrcs as an endowment. The temporary building had already 
been erected under the supervision of the Jesuit Fathers on the 
twelve acres granted her by the company, when, in the spring of 
1639, ^^i^ <^^"ty of filling this dangerous mission, as hospital nurses, 
was assumed by the Hospitali?res of the Mercy of Jesus, a com- 



258 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

munity of Augustinian Hospital Nuns whose foundation dates 
back to the twelfth century. Three delicate women were found 
willing to sacrifice themselves. Mere de Saint Ignace, the 
Mother Superior, was only twenty-nine years old, and was a suf- 
ferer herself from ill health, but a woman of indomitable courage 
and energy. Her companions were Mere de Saint Bernard, a 
quiet, contemplative woman, and Mere de Saint Bonaventure, a 
gentle creature who had assumed the habit of a nun at eighteen 
years of age, and had never left her cloister. If meekness, ten- 
derness and charity are the most potent agents for influencing 
suffering and dying men, whether savage or civilized, these three 
women, whose only sense of strength came from reliance on Di- 
vine aid, were well equipped for their noble mission. 

But if the need of hospital accommodation and good nursing 
was being keenly felt, hardly less urgent was the need of some 
provision for female education, and this also the devout women of 
France were prepared to furnish without drawing on the com- 
pany in the colony or in France. When Saint Angele at Bresse, 
in 1537, was first moved to erect an order of women whose voca- 
tion should be to relieve distress and teach the ignorant, she con- 
ceived that this object could be best accomplished by the members 
living singly in private houses. Ere long, however, the tendency 
towards association became irresistible, and her first followers 
formed themselves into communities of cloistered nuns, allied 
to the order of St. Augustine, under rules which did not 
enforce absolute seclusion, yet which permitted the fulfill- 
ment of their founder's charitable objects. They adopted the 
name, and were inspired by the example, of the martyr virgin, St. 
Ursula. It was not till the beginning of the seventeenth century 
that, under the instigation of Madame de St. Beuve, the order 
opened its convent doors to boarders seeking education, and 
adopted the rules by which it is still governed. The order was 
therefore in the first ardor of its re-creation when Madame de la 
Peltrie was inspired by Father le Jeune's glowins: accounts of the 
spiritual receptivity of the Indians to devote her life to the educa- 
tion of their girls. It was by a Providential and strange coincidence 
that she was brought into intercourse, through Father Coudran, 



THE URSULIXE CONVENT. 



General of the order, with that holy man whom all Christ- 
ians have agreed to canonize, St. Vincent de Paul, and 
with another woman, fired by as ardent zeal as herself, though of a 
less explosive temperament, jMere Alarie de I'lncarnation. Both 
women had mixed in good society, both -had been married, and 
both, under the fervor of devotion, had not only relinquished the 
world, but had, in so doing, broken the natural ties and obliga- 
tions of family and social life. Madame Madeleine de Chau- 
vigny, as the daughter of the Seigneur of Vaubougon, near 
Alengon, in Normandy, had married early in life Mons. de 
la Peltrie, and had been left a widow while still in the 
bloom of youth, with the additional attraction of a large fortune. 
She had suitors many, who were pressed upon her by her father. 
To rid herself of their attention and the importunity of her family, 
she married a Mons. de Bemieres, a man of position, treasurer of 
France at Caen. It is stated that both parties to the contract agreed 
that the marriage should be merely formal, and terminate with 
the ceremony. Mons. de Bernieres was as zealously religious as his 
wife, and after they had parted forever, he, as a business man, ad- 
ministered the affairs in France of the Ursuline Convent in Can- 
ada, over which his wife was the secular head. Had they so willed, 
they might both have taken the vows and assumed a religious 
habit ; but he thought, no doubt correctly, that he could further 
his wife's plans, and administer her estate more effectually, as a 
layman than as a monk. She being a woman of unusual energy, 
felt that she was a fitting counterpart of her mystical friend, the 
saintly Marie de I'lncarnation, and could best attain the object 
they both had in view by remaining in the world, while not of it. 

Marie Guyart had also tasted the bitterness of sorrow and en- 
joyed the exhilaration of romance. She had married early, but, 
after two years of happiness, as Madame Martin, was left a 
widow with an only child. For twelve years she devoted herself 
to the care and education of her boy. Then the call to forsake all, 
even her offspring, became overpowering and she yielded. She 
entered the Ursuline Convent at Tours, and henceforward ex- 
emplified that mysterious state of self-abnegation and absorption 
in a dominant idea or passion, which St. Paul expresses in the 



26o QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

verse : "Henceforth I live, yet not I, but Christ Hveth in me." In 
visions she beheved herself divinely called to live and die in Can- 
ada; and when, years afterwards, Madame de la Peltrie came to 
Tours to seek the advice of Father Ponat as to the manner in 
which she could best fulfill her missionary purpose, Marie de I'ln- 
carnation at once recognized in her the companion with whom she 
had, in her dreams, trodden the longed-for wilderness of that re- 
pellent and yet attractive savage land. On the other hand, Ma- 
dame de la Peltrie saw in the devout, contemplative, but yet 
courageous nun the very woman who would face danger without 
flinching, and wrench success from failure and disappointment, 
as the superior of her convent in the New World. All the nuns 
of Tours were eager to enlist for this missionary enterprise, but 
one only was chosen, Marie de la Troche de St. Bernard, who 
was selected, not because she was the most robust, but by reason 
of her gentle, winning ways and devout enthusiasm. Before 
sailing from Dieppe, Mother Cecile Richer de la Croix was per- 
mitted to join this little band of the first female missionaries who 
ever sailed away from a Christian land with no other motive than 
to carry the gospel and exemplify the Master's teaching to the 
heathen. 

Looking back on it, the age seems to us one full of contradic- 
tion. Vice abounded, but grace did certainly in some places much 
more abound ; yet they were in such close fellowship that it is ex- 
tremely difficult to dissociate them. So obscured was the virtue of 
religious zeal by the reprehensible methods of attaining holy 
ends, that one wonders how any moral standard could be main- 
tained. Madame de la Peltrie's fictitious marriage to deceive her 
father is cited as an act of piety, and Madame Martin's neglect of 
her son in the ardent desire to assume the habit of a nun is ac- 
counted worthy of all imitation. Religious eccentricity has not been 
confined to one age, or to the advocates of any one creed ; but it 
certainly assumes some of its most extreme phases in periods of 
vivid religious revival, when fervid devotion, which may at any 
time become morbid under the stimulus of imagination, arrays it- 
self for spiritual conflict. 

On the 4th of May, 1639, the good ship ''St. Joseph" was ready 




Miiif. <lc I;\ rdtrie (Marie Madeleine de ( hauvigny). 



ARRIVAL OF THE NUNS. 



to put to sea from the port of Dieppe, and on it embarked as earn- 
est a group of Christians as those who had sailed from Plymouth 
in the Mayflower, nineteen years before. The energetic Madame de 
la Peltrie, three nursing nuns from the hospital at Dieppe, three 
teaching nuns of the Order of St. Ursule, and the three Jesuit 
Fathers, Vimont, Poncet and Chaumont, looked at life and their 
duties as Christians from a point of view so diametrically opposite 
to that of the Pilgrims, that it is difficult to conceive how two 
groups of intelligent men and women could possibly put such con- 
trary interpretations on the teachings of the same Master. Both 
recognized his authority as absolute, both accepted his words as 
the law of their lives, and yet how widely divergent were the paths 
which they followed ! 

It was midsummer before the ship arrived at Tadousac, where 
they transhipped to a schooner, and so went on to Quebec. Unable 
to reach the port before nightfall, they camped on the Island of 
Orleans, whence news of their coming preceded them. The Gover- 
nor, his suite, all the inliabitants, and a group of Indians were at 
the Ciil de Sac to bid them welcome, and we can well believe that, 
in the ecstasy of their emotions, the nuns fell on their knees and 
kissed the very ground of their adopted country. To climb the hill 
and return thanks in the little chapel of Notre Dame de la Recoii- 
vrancc was their first duty. The rest of the day may have been 
spent in treading the forest paths and visiting the building which 
the Jesuits were putting up for the Hospitali(^res, a humble house 
on the cliff, overlooking the St. Charles; and the sheltered site 
which had been selected for the convent of the Ursulines, under 
the hill which rose steeply to its crest, then covered witli forest, 
now crowned by the citadel. It did not consume much time to ar- 
range their scanty wardrobes and the still scantier furniture in the 
temporary wooden building assigned to tliem. Before all else they 
were anxious to see the Inchans whom they expected to be their 
special charge. The next day, accordingly, they were taken in a 
schooner to Sillcry. They found there the little circle of Indian 
huts grouped around the church, the priest's house and tlic in- 
firmary, all surrounded by a wooden palisade. The Indians were 
accustomed to the black-robed priests, but these strangclv clad 



262 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



women at first frightened them.* A band of Indians and 
squaws excites the curiosity of white men, even to-day, 
after the white race has hved in contact with the red for 
four centuries. At that moment they were invested with 
a mysterious charm, and the possibility of raising them 
through Christian teaching and kindness out of savagery to 
civihzation gave to them in the eyes of these zealous mission- 
aries an almost sacred aspect. The Hospitalieres would have been 
depressed could they have foreseen how few Indians their hospital 
wards were, after a few years, to receive ; and Madame de la Pel- 
trie would hardly have believed it possible that the training and 
the careful nurturing, which her sisters were about to offer so 
freely to the Indian girls, would fail to attract them. The regi- 
men of the Jesuit schools, though comparatively lax, had driven 
away their pupils. This might have warned Madame de la Peltrie 
that the close confinement of a convent would prove intolerable to 
the forest-loving Indian girl. 

But full of hope and faith, the Hospital and the UrsuHne Nuns 
were now to part, after three months of intimate intercourse, to 
take up each their appointed work. Till their hospital was fin- 
ished, the Grey Nuns were provided with a house near the Fort, 
and the Ursulines opened their school, and resumed the routine of 
their cloistered life, with six pupils, in a house in the Lower Town, 
near the landing place, adjacent to the old Recollet chapel and the 
Company's old store. There the Indians camped and chiefly con- 
gregated; and by opening their school in that neighborhood, 
the nuns expected to attract to it the girls whose hearts they 
were so devoutly set on winning from barbarism and the devil 
to the worship of Jesus and his Mother, by the exhibition of the 
comforts which their convent presented, and by the charm of their 
singing and their attractive form of worship. 

• The Hospitalieres did not assume their official costume as Grey Nuns till 
they entered their convent. 



CHAPTER XII. 



The Foundation of Ville Marie as a Rival to Quebec^ 
and the Breaking Out of the Iroquois War. 

The ships that broug-ht out the nuns carried also the tidings 
of the birth of the Dauphin, the long-prayed-for heir to Louis 
XIII. 's throne, the Dieudonne Louis XIV., who was to take so 
deep an interest in the colony, but to govern it under a more bu- 
reaucratic system than even the great Cardinal himself might have 
approved. There was great rejoicing in the colony. The event 
was celebrated by a procession to the chapel, where thanks were 
rendered to the accompaniment of cannon and musketry. The most 
notable feature in the procession was six Indians dressed in finery, 
which had been sent out to Canada by the King on the occasion of 
the presentation to him of a young savage the previous year. This 
youth was one of the six ; two others were relatives of his ; the re- 
maining three had been selected as representatives of the great 
racial divisions recognized by the French — a Christianized Huron, 
an Algonquin, a Montagnais. They bore their honors as though 
to the manner born, and headed the procession to the church ; 
thence they marched to the hospital recently opened, in the 
chapel of which there was another service of thanksgiving, and 
then returned to the Fort. For this thanksgiving service was 
celebrated on the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin, August 
15, and therefore fifteen days after the landing of the nuns, who 
with their pupils sang the exordium. The day terminated with 
feasting and speech making and a display of fireworks. 

While the picturesque worship, with its seductive music and 
mysterious symbolism, delighted the Indians, their attachment to 
the French must have been further strengthened by the care for 
the bodies in the hour of sickness so tenderly exercised by the 
Sisters at the Hotel Dieu. Though the teaching nuns, the Ur- 
sulines, were not encumbered with over many pupils, the nursing 



264 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

ones found their hospital at once filled with more than they could 
make proper provision for. To induce the Indians to adopt a 
sedentary mode of life, the company offered a grant of cleared 
land as a dower to every Indian girl on her marriage, provided she 
and her husband would settle upon it. Not many appear to have 
availed themselves of the offer. It is recorded that a member of the 
company gave 100 ecus to the Jesuit College for Indian boys, 
while another gave 100 ecus to an Indian girl on her marriage to 
a Frenchman. From Champlain's time, intermarriage of French- 
men with Indian girls was not only sanctioned but encouraged 
by the Church and by the company. The custom affords another 
point of contrast between New France and New England. All 
these influences combined to strengthen the ties which bound the 
Indians to the French, and to increase the number of converts. 
Had it not been for the unfortunate hostility of the Iroquois, the 
laudable efforts of the Church and the company to elevate and 
Christianize the aborigines within the sphere of their influence, 
might have met with as much success as the labors of the Spanish 
Church among the Pueblos of the Rio Grande, or those of the 
Franciscan Monks in California. 

Of religious zeal there was an abundance, yet the colony 
did not grow. Some seventeen seignories were granted prior to 
1640, and absolute grants of land were made in the neighborhood 
of Quebec and Three Rivers; but it was hard to get people to 
come and cultivate them. One or two energetic residents like Gif- 
fard did induce a few peasants from Normandy to settle on the 
rich bottom lands of the Beauport Flats; but such efforts were 
exceptional. Cheffault, the most influential member of the aux- 
iliary company, was perhaps entitled to the best lands in the coun- 
try, which he obtained when the Seignory of Beaupre was con- 
ceded to him; and Jacques Castillon, another shareholder, might 
show some reason for claiming the Island of Orleans ; but as both 
were traders neither was in a position to fulfill the first duty of a 
seigneur — namely, to encourage the toil of the colonists by per- 
sonal participation in the arduous task of opening up the wilder- 
ness. Three extensive grants were made to the Jesuits, with the 
ostensible object of enabling them to form settlements on which 



DIFFICULTIES OF THE NEW COMPANY. 265 

the Indians might be taught agriculture. Had the plan suc- 
ceeded, close familiarity between the Indian and the Frenchman 
would not have proved conducive to industrious habits on the 
part of the latter. The Duchess d'Aiguillon, it may be assumed, 
ceded her seignory, the fief of Grondines and the thirty acres 
within the banlieu of Quebec, to the Hotel Dieu. Still others of 
those early grants were made to absentee stockholders — one cover- 
ing a large tract on the south shore, opposite Quebec, being given 
to Le Maistre, a shareholder, as attorney for de Lauzon, the In- 
tendant of the company. Even had the seignorial system been well 
adapted to encourage the immigration of actual farmers, the sys- 
tem must have failed under such leaders. In truth all the influences 
at work deterred rather than encouraged active settlement. The 
colony was governed by a military knight who had taken religi- 
ous vows. The Jesuits, who were his trusted advisers, had re- 
duced the colony as nearly as possible to the status of a theocracy, 
and all private enterprise was strangled by the commercial com- 
pany, whose interest was to retard rather than to promote coloniza- 
tion. Their professions of zeal in the matter, to judge by the facts, 
were quite as hollow as those of their heretical predecessors. 

At this date, when the population of the whole colony did not 
exceed two hundred, the Virginian colony, which had been in ex- 
istence just about the same length of time, had attracted a popula- 
tion of 15,000, while the New England colony numbered some 
26,000. Boston was a thriving town with a printing press. 

When a trading company undertakes the functions of govern- 
ment, there are so many drains on its treasury of an unproductive 
character, and it has to disburse so much in protecting its priv- 
ileges, that its gains must be enormous if business is to be 
carried on at a profit. The French company, as we have seen, set 
out on its active career burdened with debt, and cml)arrassed by an 
auxiliary mortgage company. Nevertheless, for three or four 
years subsequent to 1633, when de Caen's monopoly expired, it 
made money. But the bold attack of the Iroquois on the Hurons 
under the very guns of the post of Three Rivers in 1636, 
checked the current of the fur trade from the Lakes. The 
arrangement of the original company with the auxiliary one ex- 



266 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

pired in 1637, the year after the breaking out of hostilities. 

The profits earned had amounted to 60,000 Hvres, after pay- 
ing to de Caen and others certain judgments amounting to some 
75,000 Hvres. The partnership was renewed for another period 
of four years. But the second term was as disastrous as the first 
had been successful, for at its close the company owed the 
auxiliary company 70,464 livres. Confidence had hardly been re- 
stored in the hearts of the Huron and Algonquin allies of 
the French, when the audacious seizure of two Frenchmen 
near Three Rivers, in the winter of 1 640-1 641, and the cir- 
cumstances of their surrender in the summer of 1641, demon- 
strated the helplessness of the French company to maintain a safe 
highway for their traders. The incident threw the Quebec 
community into greater excitement than it had known since 
so many of its prominent men had hurried up the river in 1637, 
to repel the same ubiquitous and elusive foe. It happened in this 
wise. Two Frenchmen, Frangois Marguerie and Thomas Gode- 
froy, the latter a man of note who some years before had been 
granted a seignory opposite Three Rivers, were hunting on snow- 
shoes near Three Rivers when they were surprised and captured 
by a band of Iroquois. They were carried off unharmed to a Mo- 
hawk village, where they were treated with great consideration. 
When they were in want of clothing their Indian captors 
obtained garments for them from the Dutch at the neigh- 
boring settlement of Fort Orange, and in April they set of? 
on a return journey in company with some 50 savages, part of 
whom left the main body to molest the Lake and Ottawa Indians 
on their way down to the trading post of Three Rivers, 
while the rest descended the river with their hostages. On 
the 6th of June, more than twenty canoes filled with sav- 
ages appeared before Three Rivers. An Algonquin who ventured 
out was captured. Then a single canoe, paddled, it was thought, 
by one of the Indians, appeared with a flag of truce. As it 
approached the man was seen to be Frangois Marguerie. He said 
that the Indians wished for the friendship of the French, that 500 
had left the village and 300 were on the river, and that they had 
amongst them thirty arquebuses. Montmagny, whose name trans- 



THE IROQUOIS PROPOSE AN ALLIANCE. 



267 



lated into the Indian tongue was ''Onon-tio," a designation 
henceforth given lo all French Governors, was notified with all 
haste, and came up with a bark and four shallops. The wind be- 
ing contrary, he went ahead in his rowboat. There was a solemn 
pow-wow with exchange of presents, and the two Frenchmen 
were liberated with proper theatrical accompaniments, their bonds 
cut asunder, and the ropes thrown into the river. 

The Iroquois pleaded for an alliance, expressing their 
preference for the French over the English or the Dutch, 
and offering to live peaceably with the Montagnais and 
the Algonquins ; but when asked, as a pledge of their promise, to 
liberate an Algonquin prisoner, they asked for time to deliberate, 
and demanded in return, in addition to the presents they had al- 
ready received, a gift of firearms, though they were already sup- 
plied with a number of arquebuses. The priests strongly advised 
the Governor to decline the alliance, believing the negotiations to 
be insincere, and that the sole purpose was to create dissension be- 
tween the French and their allies. The Governor returned 
to his boats, and, as an expressive way of signifying his 
decision, began firing on their camp. In return the thirty 
arquebuses kept up a fusilade on the boats, while the main 
body noiselessly transported their canoes and equipment to a part 
of the river whence they could escape without detection. They 
hovered about Lake St. Peter and captured some descending 
Hurons, but had vanished before the arrival of the reinforcements 
ordered from Quebec, consisting of four canoes full of armed men 
under the guidance of Christian Indians from St. Joseph, Sillcry. 

That the action of the Iroquois in seeking an alliance, was a 
mere ruse to entrap the Montagnais and the Algonquins on their 
approach to Three Rivers, may be doubted. Their policy was 
probably more far-reaching. The peace between their Indian 
enemies on the Hudson and Long Island, and the Dutch, had been 
broken by the unwise [)oHcy of Kieft, the Governor of New Neth- 
erlands, and the Five Nations were preparing to take advantage of 
the situation to ravage the country of those weak tribes. They had 
always considered it a grievance that the Dutch, who were their 
close allies and best customers, would not make enemies of their 



268 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



enemies among the native tribes, after tlie manner of the French, 
who, having made alHance with the Algonquins and Hurons, had 
at once espoused their quarrels, as they, the Iroquois, knew to their 
cost. They may have imagined that, as the Dutch were on the 
eve of hostihties with a branch of the Huron nation, it might be 
possible to persuade the French, as well as the Dutch, to become 
their friends, and thus cause all assistance to be withdrawn from 
their hereditary foes. With the aid of the Europeans, or simply 
with their neutrality, they could crush the continent into sub- 
mission, reduce all the members of the great Algonquin fam- 
ily to the position of subject tribes, and relieve the trade 
of both European competitors from the risks and uncertain- 
ty which this interminable war created. These brave and 
merciless warriors and skilful tacticians were, as politicians, 
astute and far seeing. They held the balance of power on 
the continent for nearly a century and a half, and it would 
not therefore be inconsistent with their character and policy 
to suppose that they imagined they could use the motive of 
self-interest to wean their European neighbors from extending 
sympathy and aid to their enemy. But whatever their object, 
their overtures were refused, with the result that the fur trade be- 
tween the Upper Lakes and the Ottawa and the French posts was 
seriously fettered ; in fact, it never again prospered, and the decay 
reached to Quebec. Meanwhile, though the Iroquois did not yet 
terrorize the Montagnais of the Saguenay district, there was an- 
other source of anxiety in that direction, as it was impossible to 
watch and defend the wide expanse of the Gulf, a true inland sea, 
against poachers, who were drafted in part from the discontented 
traders of Normandy and Brittany, and in part from the 
hostile merchants and skippers of Devonshire and Bristol. Be- 
tween the Iroquois on the one hand and the marauders on the 
other, the trade of the company languished, its profits waned, 
and the colony, which was to have shared its prosperity, felt all 
the effects of its ill fortune. 

The ecclesiastical history of the colony seems during this pe- 
riod to stand out in undue proportion to its civil and political 
development — perhaps because neither the Governor nor the agents 



ECCLESIASTICAL ACTIVITY. 



269 



of the company could tell the story of their doings with the 
literary skill displayed by Father le Jeune when narrating the toils 
and triumphs of the Church. That excellent man and interesting 
writer was relieved by Father Vimont as Superior of the Jesuits 
in 1639, but he was considerately asked to prepare the Relation 
for 1640. In 1640 more nursing nuns arrived from the Maison 
de Misericorde of Dieppe, but their number was soon to be re- 
duced by the death of the gentle, delicate Mere Ste. Marie. A 
branch of the Hotel Dieu Hospital was also established at Sillery, 
where the colony of sedentary Indians was growing so fast as to 
excite the keenest hopes of success in the work of weaning the 
converted natives from their indolent and roving habits. The 
opening of the hospital at Sillery made it possible to turn over part 
of their scanty accommodation in Quebec to the Jesuits, whose 
building, used as a presbytery as well as a school, and situated near 
Champlain's Chapcllc de la Recouvrance, was burned in June 14. 
The fire spread to and consumed the wooden church itself, so that 
till the Jesuits' own church, in connection with their college, was 
finished in 1653, ^^^^ chapel of the Hotel Dieu was the parish 
church of Quebec. 

Two more Ursuline nuns arrived with the Hospitalieres, and 
an addition was made to the Society of Jesus ; but there is no rec- 
ord of the number of actual settlers who came into the country, or 
of the commerce of the post. Nevertheless, it was a busy summer. 
In fact, the short period of the fleet's stay every year was so 
crowded with work and distraction, that on one occasion, Father 
Ic Jeune tells us, they postponed the baptism of an Indian cate- 
chumen till after it had sailed. There had been this summer 
an unusual piece of dissipation. The Dauphin's birthday had 
been celebrated by a theatrical performance, cither in the Jesuit 
College or at the castle. The play is designated as a tragi- 
comedy, and was composed and put upon the stage by Mons. Pi- 
raulie. Father le Jeune descril)cs the performance with much de- 
tail, for, at the request of the pious Governor, it was turn- 
ed to the edification of the Indians, by the introduction of a scene 
in which a lost soul was seen chased by demons into actual flames, 
its shrieks of despair responded to by the exulting shouts of devils. 



270 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

The Indians were all much impressed, and one was actually con- 
verted. 

A great excitement was also caused in the month of June by 
the news of the approach of a most unexpected visitor, under the 
guidance of some Abenaki Indians. He was an Englishman, who 
had descended the Chaudiere from Maine, in search of the North- 
west passage, which he hoped to find by way of the Saguenay. He 
had been in New Mexico, and had heard stories of a great sea 
which he understood to be to the north instead of to the west of 
that distant region. The gorge of the Saguenay he believed to be 
an arm of this sea. But New France was not a field for explora- 
tion except for Frenchmen ; the English tourist was therefore ar- 
rested before he reached the town, and ordered to return by the 
way he had come. As the waters of the Chaudiere and the Loup 
had fallen, this was impossible, so he was ordered to leave the 
country by ship. He saw the object of his dreams, the mouth of 
the Saguenay, at Tadousac, and the sight must have made him 
eager to prove or disprove his theory. The French, however, al- 
ready knew that the Saguenay was a river and had its head waters 
in a small lake. Sieur Nicolet, moreover, had already ascended the 
Sault Ste. Marie and seen the setting sun dip into the great Lake ; 
and though he knew this could not be the Western Ocean — for its 
waters were fresh — it was agreed that it was at least the inland 
sea, which the Englishman was in search of to the north of Mexico. 
It was therefore clear to them that it was idle to seek a route to 
China by way of the Saguenay. 

Father le Jeune returned to France in the autumn of 1640, to 
plead for more energetic measures against the Iroquois, and more 
activity in the work of colonization and Christianization. He did 
this notwithstanding the fact that an association was already being 
formed to establish a fortified post on the Island of Montreal with 
these very objects in view. That enterprise was not controlled 
by the Society of Jesus. Its promoters hoped to people 
their settlement with Indian converts, whom they fondly be- 
lieved they could protect from the bloodthirsty Iroquois. The 
impelling motive, therefore, was above all religious. The 
Montreal colonists embarked from Rochelle and Dieppe in 



ARRIVAL OF M. DE MAISOXNEUVE. 



271 



three ships, with other passengers for Xew France. Among 
them was a Jesuit, Pere de la Place, and the secular chap- 
lain of the Ursulines, the Rev. Mons. Antoine Pauls. The Rev. 
Father Rapin, Provincial of the Recollets, as well as the Jesuit or- 
ganization in Old France, had lent their aid to this new enterprise, 
to which a grant of the Island of ^Montreal had been made by Mon- 
sieur de Lauzon, with the consent of the Company of the One 
Hundred Associates. So far all was well, but there was by no 
means the same harmony in Canada when the newcomers present- 
ed themselves. Of the three ships the first to arrive at 
Quebec was that which had on board ^lademoiselle ]\Iance, 
a young woman inflamed with as ardent a missionary fervor 
as Madame de la Peltrie, but of a less impulsive temperament, 
and apparently possessed of more common sense. She employed 
her time while awaiting the arrival of her chief, Mons. Paul 
de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, in gauging the opin- 
ion of the Quebec settlement regarding the new enterprise. The 
account of what occurred, as told by the author of the ''Histoire 
de iVIontreal," generally attributed to Mons. Dollier de Casson, a 
priest of the Order of St. Sulpice, and third Superior of the Or- 
der in Montreal, gives a charming picture of the courteous man- 
ners which the early Quebec settlers had transplanted from Old 
to New France, and of the generous hospitality displayed by 
those who themselves had known what it was to be strangers in a 
strange land. 

As soon as Mons. de Maisonneuve arrived he heard from 
Mademoiselle Mance that, officially, he must expect to be less cor- 
dially received by certain personages than perhaps he had antici- 
pated. This unexpected communication dampened somewhat the 
joy of the moment, but as the good priest expresses it, "Such 
heroes of the Cross must expect to taste bitter, as well as sweet." 
Nevertheless, he made, without delay, ceremonious calls on Mons. 
de Montmagny, the Jesuit Fathers, and other persons of conse- 
quence. They were not many, inasmuch as the total population, 
including priests and nuns, was less than one hundred souls. 
He found that those inimical to his project had persuaded 
the Governor to oppose the establishment of a post in Mon- 



272 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



treal on the ground of the difficulty, if not impossibility, of de- 
fending it against the attacks of the Iroquois. In any case the 
Governor urged him to defer his visit to the future Ville-Marie 
until the following spring. It is not stated whether the opposition 
came from the commercial interests of the colony, which feared 
competition, or from the Jesuits, who foresaw ecclesiastical as 
well as civil complications as likely to grow out of the new under- 
taking; or whether Montmagny was himself piqued that so im- 
portant a commission, to be exercised apparently in independence 
of his authority, should have been created within the recognized 
limits of his government. The opposition is generally attributed 
solely to the Commercial Company, who foresaw that the head of 
navigation and the meeting spot of the two great rivers 
would eventually become the great mart of furs. If the 
Jesuits were in opposition they must have eventually ac- 
quiesced, otherwise the Governor, who was guided wholly 
by their counsels, would not have yielded. From a military 
point of view the Governor was justified in opposing the 
foundation of a new town at that time, as events proved 
that neither he nor the local Governor was able to protect it. 
The traders were right in anticipating that trade would be 
deflected from its existing channels; and the Jesuit Fathers 
knew that one of the most ardent apostles of the new movement 
was Jean Jacques Olier, a young and enthusiastic priest, who 
was not a member of their order. This ecclesiastic subse- 
quently founded the Seminary of St. Sulpice in Paris, a com- 
munity which acquired the rights of the Montreal company 
and the ownership of the island itself. The rivalry between the 
two towns thus commenced in their very infancy. But the elo- 
quence of Mons. de Maisonneuve, his rehgious enthusiasm and 
military ardor, bore down all opposition, and Montmagny him- 
self accompanied him, late as it was in the season, to the scene of 
his future government. They started together in the beginning 
of October, and reached Montreal on the 14th of that month. On 
the following day, they took formal possession in the name of the 
company, and soon returned. 

On their journey back they experienced special marks, as we 



A HALT AT QUEBEC. 



read, of the Saviour's favor, for, having reached St. Foy, a 
day's journey from Quebec, they were entertained by Mons. de 
Pizeaux, an old gentleman of seventy-five years of age, who was so 
impressed by Mons. de Maisonneuve's pious scheme that he prayed 
to be allowed to join the association, and to devote not only himself 
but his property at St. Foy, and all he possessed, to their service. 
He pleaded that at St. Foy there were oak forests close to the river, 
where boats for the Montreal Company could be built during the 
winter months, while at Pointe aux Pizeaux the furniture and 
equipment for the Montreal fort could be made, ere spring and 
open navigation would permit their transportation. To Maison- 
neuve, perplexed by the difficulty of housing and providing for 
his whole company during the long winter months, the offer 
sounded like a voice from heaven, but he had to defer formal 
acceptance until he had consulted his colleagues. Meanwhile, 
however, he installed his surgeon and his head carpenter at St. 
Foy, to superintend the boat building, and descended to Pointe 
aux Pizeaux, where his host put his house, the very jewel of the 
colony, le bijou du pais, and all that it contained, at his disposal, 
informing Madame de la Peltrie, who had heretofore been his 
guest, that she must henceforth consider Mons. de Maisonneuve 
as, not only her host, but the owner in his stead of all that he 
possessed. 

Thus the society of Quebec was during all that winter enlivened 
by the presence of a group of intelligent enthusiasts, whose ulti- 
mate aim was at one with that of the dominant party, though there 
was sufficient difference in their methods and projects to 
leave room for lively discussion. Yet as Pointe aux Pizeaux was 
miles away from the Castle of St. Louis and the Jesuits' House, 
and as there was not yet a horse in the colony, communication 
must have been difficult. Tlic benevolent old gentleman, some 
years later, changed his mind, for according to Mons. I'Abbe 
de Belmont's ''Histoirc dc la Nouvelle France," he repent- 
ed in 1645 of his gift and it was returned to him. The whole 
company, however, did not accept of Mons. Pizcaux's hospital- 
ity. Despite the entreaty of the Governor, who urged thcin to 
tarry till spring and enjoy such comforts as the Fort offered. 



274 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



Father Antoine Fauls and some twenty-five colonists, accompanied 
by the Jesuit Father Vimont, in their anxiety to engage in their 
holy work, started for Montreal, where they arrived almost as 
winter was setting in, occupied the camp which had been prepared 
for them, and bravely faced the future. They were not short of 
food, for, the year before, the Montreal Association had shipped 
twenty tons of supplies. But the Iroquois were prowling every- 
w^here around, and the terrors of impending winter, as well as of 
the wilderness, might well have appalled these sons of sunny 
France, had their faith and pious enthusiasm not been proof 
against all fears. Thus was Montreal founded as a harbor for the 
hunted Indians ; colonization was pushed one hundred miles furth- 
er up the river than Three Rivers, and the first regular intercourse 
by boat was estabHshed ; one of the conditions on which the island 
was granted being that the company should furnish two shal- 
lops or pinnaces to ply between Quebec and Montreal and carry 
freight and colonists' supplies. 

The amenities of life were sure to be found in a colony the in- 
habitants of which were French. The glimpse which we 
get of Mons. Pizeaux's house at Sillery, with its open door 
and hospitable hearth, shows that the fascinations and glori- 
ous scenery of the St. Lawrence had already attracted some 
wealth, and that wealth had introduced some refinements. But 
so long as the colony was at the mercy of the Iroquois, nothing 
could prosper. Well aware of this, the Governor on his return in 
the spring of 1642 from installing de Maisonneuve in pos- 
session of the Island of Montreal, determined to build a fort 
at the mouth of the River of the Iroquois, and to name it after 
the great Cardinal. The name has since been transferred to 
the river. He then proceeded to enlist the first contingent of Can- 
adian militia — one hundred of the colonists — who proved their 
efficiency by repelling an attack made by a band of Iroquois while 
the fort was in course of construction. But the result of stop- 
ping one outlet from the Iroquois country was merely to make 
the flood of savagery burst forth from others. To the south 
of the Adirondacks is a chain of lakes and rivers, which 
link the Mohawk with the St. Lawrence by shorter portages than 



IROQUOIS MASSACRES. 



even the Lake Champlain route. By it the Indians of the Five 
Nations could reach the mouth of the Ottawa by canoe from the 
territory of the ^lohawks, while the Hurons themselves, in blazing 
a trail for Champlain, had pointed the way to their enemies be- 
tween the Georgian Bay and the Genessee River by way of the 
Trent and Lake Ontario. 

Terror seized Quebec in August, 1642. Father Jogues 
had been recalled from the Huron country by his Superior, 
and was returning with some French and a number of 
Hurons in August, when the whole party was surprised and at- 
tacked by Iroquois at a point only about forty-five miles above 
Quebec. The story of the heroism of his companions and of his 
own devotion forms one of the most thrilling episodes of Canadian 
history. The incident forced upon the people of Quebec, and still 
more appallingly on the exposed colony of Sillery, the con- 
viction that no one was safe from the ruthless savages, 
armed no longer with bows and arrows, but with matchlocks as 
deadly as those of the white men. The Dutch Governors of New 
Netherlands had forbidden the sale of firearms and ammunition 
to the Indians, but while they had been able to enforce their 
regulations on traders dealing with Algonquin tribes on and near 
Manhattan Island, they were powerless to control the trade of the 
padrons of Rensellaerwick, whose cheapest articles of barter 
with the Iroquois of the neighboring confederacy were mus- 
kets, powder and shot. Thus it came about that, of all the Indians 
of the continent, those in whose hands firearms were most danger- 
ous were those who could most readily procure them. From this 
time forward the Iroquois set equally at defiance their Indian 
enemies and the French. Becoming bolder and more aggressive, 
they changed their tactics, scattering in small l)an(ls, and 
striking blows in rapid succession where least expected, and 
at points distant one from another, along the river. In the 
early spring a company of Hurons with their peltries was 
captured above Three Rivers. A month later another band of 140 
Iroquois took thirteen canoes filled with Hurons near the Island 
of Montreal itself, seized their cargoes, and killed or captured 
most of the men. Five Frenchmen who were working near 



276 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



the fort were made prisoners. Quebec had not been attacked, 
and would not be as long- as its men remained to defend it ; and it 
was clear that, unless soldiers arrived from France to protect the 
colony, the colonists themselves, with all the will in the world, 
would not think of leaving their homes exposed to attack in order 
to make an aggressive move. 

News reached Chanfleur, Governor of Three Rivers, through 
an escaped Huron, that Father Jogues was still alive, and forth- 
with Governor Montmagny started from Quebec in four shallops 
for Fort Richelieu, around which an Iroquois band had been hover- 
ing, hoping, either by force of arms or by persuasion, to secure the 
Father's release. On his appearance the enemy vanished, and 
he dared not follow them by their forest trails. Then came a 
letter from Jogues himself — the fourth he had written. It 
created gloomy foreboding. His winter's residence in the Mo- 
hawk village had convinced him that the Iroquois could harry 
the Hurons, until those who remained would be compelled to ac- 
cept adoption into the Five Nations ; and he saw clearly that they 
would be helpless unless the French sent an army to protect them, 
for the Mohawks alone could muster seven hundred warriors, 
armed with three hundred arquebuses. Yet certainly France at 
the moment could not furnish any military assistance. Richelieu, 
to whom regenerated Canada owed its very existence, died in De- 
cember, 1642, and the King, whose most eminent virtue had been 
his willingness to be led by his great Minister, followed him to the 
grave a few months later. Louis XIV. was only five years of 
age. Anne of Austria, his mother, was trusted by no one. Cardi- 
nal Mazarin, her adviser, was hated by all. Thus distrust and 
discontent were breeding civil strife at home, while the final 
struggles of the Thirty Years' War were wasting what remained 
of France's financial resources and cruelly diminishing her popu- 
lation. 

Colonization could not flourish when such complications in the 
foreign and domestic afifairs of France coincided with the Iroquois 
War, which almost extinguished the fur trade, completed the ruin 
of the company, and distracted the energies of the colonists from 
agricultural pursuits. For three years there was only broken 



SLOW GROWTH OF THE COLONY. 



277 



intercourse between Quebec and the Georgian Bay. Father 
Bressani, as well as Father Jogues, fell into the hands of 
the Alohawks, but though they were tortured, the Indians 
apparently considered it impolitic to kill them. Several 
Relations were irretrievably lost in transmission from the mis- 
sionaries at the Huron bourgade to Father Vimont, the Superior 
in Quebec. Meanwhile, however, the fervor of the missionaries 
was fanned by the risks they ran, and their zeal bore fruit in the 
widespread conversion of the Indians. After making all allow- 
ance for exaggeration of statement due to a natural and laud- 
able enthusiasm, it seems to be true that the whole Huron nation 
accepted the practice of Christianity, and, as far as their language 
could express them, the doctrines and tenets of the Church, and 
that fair progress was made in evangelizing the less intelligent 
and more barbarous tribes of the Algonquin stock to the north and 
south of the St. Lawrence. 

The population of Quebec grew very slowly, but some notable 
accessions were made to the colony. Mons. d'Aillebout arrived in 
the summer of 1643, with his wife and daughters. He was deep- 
ly interested in the Montreal enterprise, and played a conspicu- 
ous, if not a very brilliant, part in the future history of the colony. 
His coming was very welcome, for it had been a specially anxious 
summer. It was the 15th of August before the first two ships of 
the season hove in sight, having on board, besides himself and 
family, Mons. Chartres (who came out as the cure of the Ursu- 
lines), four more Jesuit Fathers and three nuns. The religious 
recruits were the only ones who had any enthusiasm for their 
work. Had the government of France and the mercantile interests 
been as alive to the vast extent and value of Canada as a field for 
colonization and trade, the results would have been different ; but, 
in reality, it was because the evangelization of the aborigines was 
the most prominent motive in France, and because the decidedly 
autocratic and restrictive rules and procedure of the Church deter- 
mined the principles of government in the colony itself, that ma- 
terial progress was so slow. Not only were the Huguenots, with 
their wealth and enterprise, excluded, but the Church favored the 
new company, with its oppressive privileges, because it was con- 



278 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

trolled by members of the True Faith, and pledged to support its 
ministers and follow their guidance. 

Already, however, the alliance between the Church and the 
company was exposing the priests to suspicion. As early as 1636 
Father le Jeune was compelled to clear himself and his fellow 
priests of a charge, made to the Provincial in France, that they 
were engaging in the fur trade. One may assume that the com- 
plaint was made by the company. Father le Jeune points 
out that, while no one but the company can export furs, any 
habitant may buy them in exchange for produce and resell to the 
company. They had purchased them for clothing and domes- 
tic use, and as long as they merely used and did not ex- 
port them, they considered themselves as acting within their 
rights. Now, however, they were accused of having an interest 
in the company's operations, and of using their exceptional ad- 
vantages for the furtherance of commercial purposes. In rebut- 
tal of the slander, the Abbe de la Ferte and others felt impelled 
by Christian charity to disabuse the minds of those who might be 
inclined to believe these rumors by declaring in the most formal 
manner that the Jesuit Fathers were not associated with the com- 
pany of New France, either directly or indirectly, and had no part 
or parcel in the company's mercantile transactions. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



The Trading Company of the Habitants, the G)nstitu- 
tion of 1647 and the Close of Governor Mont- 
magny's Term of Office* 

Scanty as the population was, it was beginning to fret under 
the restrictions of trade. Before the Iroquois War, when the In- 
dians came down in crowds, the prosperity was general. Now 
trade was at a standstill, and every one in authority was to blame 
— primarily the company, inferentially the clergy, who were such 
close friends and intimate advisers of the Governor, and 
whose Relations were so full of complimentary references to 
the big trade corporation. Even the Iroquois troubles were laid, 
in no small degree, at the door of the Jesuits. To the immigrants, 
the Hurons must have been only Indians, and one Indian was as 
good or as bad as another. Why, because the Hurons were 
converts to Christianity and the pets of the Jesuits, the whole 
country should be exposed to the ravages of their enemies, 
must at times have been a question that the French hab- 
itants and the people of Quebec and Three Rivers asked them- 
selves with some bitterness of spirit. The only contemporary 
records are the Jesuits' own narrative, and they give voice to no 
such discontent. Dissatisfaction and suspicion nevertheless were 
abroad, and they found vent in the sending of a deputation to 
France, to secure from the King and the company some relaxation 
of the restraints on trade, and also to petition for the return of 
the Recollets. 

The deputation consisted of Pierre de Garde de Repentigny, 
of whom we have heard as arriving with his pretty daughters in 
1637, and Jean Paul Godefroy, one of the original settlers, who had 
left the country with Champlain on the first conquest of Quebec. 
The denial of complicity by the Jesuits was made on December i, 
1643 ; the meeting of the company to discuss the modification in 



28o 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



their charter was held between December, 1644, ^^'^ January, 
1645; 3, new arrangement was agreed to between the com- 
pany and the deputation from the inhabitants of Canada on the 
14th of the same month. Clearly, therefore, these concessions 
were the results of an agitation of some long standing in the 
colony. 

As yet trade had not drifted up the river to Montreal, and the 
Montreal Association still confined itself to the religious functions 
which were the basis of its organization. Fort Richelieu, on the 
site of Sorel, had not yet become the nucleus of a settlement. The 
small traders of Quebec and Three Rivers fretted under the privi- 
leges of the company, and the habitants were probably hampered 
by the company's agents in disposing of the peltries, which they 
received in exchange for their farm products. The docu- 
ment in which new terms were granted to the people of Canada 
declares that the company holds inviolate its territorial and seig- 
norial rights, but that it cedes and remits, subject to the King's 
good pleasure, to the inhabitants of the country, present and to 
come, all its exclusive rights and functions to engage in the trade 
of skins and furs in New France, over the whole length of the 
lands which border the great river St. Lawrence and its tributaries, 
to its discharge into the sea, commencing at ten leagues from 
the concession of Miscou, on the south and north shores, as far as 
the limits of the said company's privileges extended, excluding, 
however, trade in the colonies of Acadia, Miscou and Cape Breton. 
But it makes the concession only on condition that the colonists 
relieve the company of its charter obligation to support the 
colony of New France, and therefore discharge the company of 
the ordinary expense it has heretofore borne in supporting the 
ecclesiastics, governors, lieutenants, captains, soldiers, garrison in 
the fort and throughout the inhabited portions of the same coun- 
try, and generally all other charges which may be due by the com- 
pany under the original charter. But no skins or peltries are to 
be sold to any one but the company, nor exported through any 
other channel than the company's ships. The Queen Regent con- 
firms this very one-sided arrangement, which concedes little or 
nothing to the people, while relieving the company of its obli- 



THE HABITANTS* COMPANY. 



281 



gation to the crown and the colony. Richelieu would never have 
consented to it. It made every inhabitant who bought skins the 
mere agent of the company, as no one but the company could re- 
purchase or export them. The document recites that the company 
has spent 1,200,000 livres, over and above its revenue, and that 
the debts for which the associates are individually liable amount 
to 400,000 livres more. The inhabitants agreed to compensate 
the company by the annual payment of 1,000 pounds weight of 
beaver skins, and appointed Noel Juchereau de Chastelet their 
clerk, but no such consideration is mentioned in the Edict. At the 
same time a shadow of municipal government would seem to 
have been granted to Canada, though no official document exists 
which confirms the concession. Each of the towns of Quebec, 
Three Rivers and Montreal was allowed to appoint a syndic, and 
the three persons so appointed were to constitute an advisory 
board to confer, but nothing more, with the Governor. It was a 
very meagre measure of self-government.* 

The trade concessions were small, but the people at once took 
advantage of them. Father Lalemant tells us that Pontgrave ar- 
rived in August, 1645. "^^'ith five ships, bearing with him the docu- 
ment containing the terms of the treaty between the habitants and 
the company, and that when the Huron fleet of canoes arrived at 
Three Rivers, the habitants bought the entire cargo, so that the 
returning fleet was freighted with 20,000 pounds of beaver skins 
on account of the inhabitants, and 10,000 belonging to the com- 
pany, worth a pistole, or 10 to 11 francs, to the pound. The sailing 
of the fleet on the 24th of October with the first consignment was 
celebrated by the firing of cannons and a general rejoicing. 

This first commercial transaction of the habitants' company 
with the Indians had not been efifected without considerable fric- 
tion witli the company's accent. The exact terms of the treaty 
were rather vague. But the priests interposed their good offices, 
and it was decided ultimately to use the profits, whatever tliey 
might be, in huil(Hng a church and a presbytery. Thus the first 

* One reason why the commercial conditions of the treaty must have proved 
peculiarly burdensome to the inhabitants was that the Montreal Company, in 
virtue, presumably, of its exclusively relipious intentions, obtained, by convention 
with the inhabitants, exemption from the payment of its share of the consideration. 



282 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

year's trade did not lighten the company's burden of debt, nor yet 
did it put money into the pockets of the people. The new con- 
vention can hardly have been to the taste of the Jesuits, as it 
transferred the responsibility for their partial support from a 
corporation, with tangible assets and composed of individuals of 
wealth, to a scattered community, witli no political or financial 
organization. However this may have been, they did not abate 
their missionary efforts. Up to 1646, two of the priests had 
been captured by the Iroquois and tortured, barely escaping with 
their lives ; two had died, and one had been frozen to death in the 
snows between Three Rivers and Fort Richelieu. Still the total 
number in the colony continued to increase — there being thirteen 
or more in the Huron hourgades alone. In Quebec part of their 
new college building was already in use, and Father Bressani was 
teaching the French children. The nuns of the Hotel Dieu, fear- 
ful of an attack by the Iroquois, had retreated from Sillery to 
Quebec, where their substantial hospital and chapel were ap- 
proaching completion, and were clearing the forest from 
their grant of twelve acres at a cost of 150 livres per arpent. The 
number of their patients always exceeded their accommodations, 
and they nursed in a large wigwam near by those whom their hos- 
pital could not receive. The Ursulines in 1642 moved from their 
temporary quarters in the Lower Town and took possession of 
their wooden building. In 1644 Madame de la Peltrie built a two 
storied stone house on the Ursuline reservation. The Jesuits were 
occupying quarters in the company's building, supposed to have 
been situated where the English Cathedral now stands, and had 
appropriated one of the rooms for use as a chapel. A curious pic- 
ture has been preserved of the Convent and its grounds, made at 
some date between the erection in 1644 of Madame de la Peltrie's 
house, which appears in the foreground, and the fire of 1650, 
which destroyed the nunnery. We have reproduced it from 
"Glimpses of the Monastery." 

Both the Ursulines and the Hospitalieres were ready to extend 
their good offices to all who needed aid, the latter relieving the 
needy, as well as the sick, the former throwing their doors open to 
the squaw as freely as to her child. Whatever resentment there 



A COUNCIL AT THREE RIVERS. 



283 



may have been against the growing influence of the Jesuits in 
poHtics, the rehgious ladies, whether they had taken the vows or 
were still free to shape their own course, like Madame de la Pel- 
trie or Mademoiselle Mance, or Margaret Bourgeoys, were the 
leaven of unselfishness and purity, elevating the social life of the 
whole colony. 

During this summer of 1645, there was a break in the black 
cloud which had for over three years overhung the colony. In 
the previous autumn the Hurons had taken three Iroquois prison- 
ers, one of whom they had given to their allies, the Algonquins, 
who in turn presented him manacled and half dead to the Gov- 
ernor of Three Rivers. In the spring two other Iroquois prison- 
ers were taken by Algonquin Indians from Sillery, and brought 
alive to that settlement. Mons. de Montmagny wisely decided 
to hold these prisoners as hostages for the return of two French- 
men retained by the Iroquois, and he induced Mons. de Chan- 
fleur to send the third, who had received every care and kindness 
from the French, to Three Rivers, as a messenger of peace to the 
Iroquois. He fulfilled his mission promptly, faithfully and skill- 
fully, for by the 5th of July he had returned to Three Rivers with 
two Iroquois chiefs, commissioned to treat for peace, not only 
with the French, but with their Indian allies. With them came 
Guillaume Couture, one of the Frenchmen captured with Father 
Jogiies. Governor Montmagny was at once informed of the ar- 
rival of the embassy, and hurried up to the council, which was 
held with due solemnity, elaborate ceremony, and abundant ora- 
tory, as each of the seventeen wampum belts was a text for a 
separate head of the oration. At the close of the Iroquois ha- 
rangue, which occupied the first day, all joined in a dance, in 
which the Iroquois, the French, the Algonquins, the Hurons, the 
Montagnais, the Abenakis, and the Etchemins vied with one an- 
other in expressing their joy. The next day was devoted to feast- 
ing the allies of France and preparing them to accept a peace, 
which, however, could be agreed to only after profound considera- 
tion by the Governor of the weighty arguments used by the Iro- 
quois orators, hasty decision on any grave question being, bv 
the rules of Indian etiquette, bad form. On the following day 



284 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

the Governor responded by giving fourteen presents to the Iro- 
quois ambassadors, each present emphasizing the recollection of 
a past injury, or a distinct principle or promise to be respected 
in the future, if peace was to prevail. Then with more speech- 
making by all the parties to the contract, peace was declared, 
and the Iroquois embassy departed, amidst the roll of musketry, 
accompanied by two French lads, who were entrusted to their 
care as a token of confidence. 

The first fruit of the peace was the arrival, unmolested, of a 
fleet of sixty Huron canoes, laden with furs, and bringing back 
Father Lalemant, who had been appointed Superior of the mis- 
sion in place of Father Vimont, also some soldiers, who had been 
sent out the year before from France, and whom the Governor 
had hurried forward to protect the missionaries on Lake Huron. 
Though the French government sent the troops (twenty-two 
men in all), it made no provision for their maintenance. During 
the year that they were in the Huron country they were quar- 
tered on the Jesuit Fathers, who claimed that they not only acted 
as commissary agents, but as medical staff and as armourers, 
and that at least two hundred livres should have been allowed them 
per head, instead of the inadequate compensation they received. 

The withdrawal of the troops from the Huron country was 
another proof of the fatal tendency of Montmagny to lapse into a 
false security. Had the military force with the Hurons been in- 
creased, instead of being withdrawn, the terrible massacres of 
1648 and 1649 might have been averted. The conduct of these 
soldiers differed widely from that of other white men thrown 
among the Indians, if we may accept Father Vimont's statement 
that "they returned with a fuller cargo of virtue, and knowledge 
of the sacred verities, than they had taken on board in France." 
Shortly after a delegation arrived from all the northern tribes, 
and finally, on the 17th of September, appeared four delegates 
from the Mohawks. These, though not representatives of the 
whole confederacy, professed to be authorized to confirm the treaty 
of peace, a ceremony attended with even more palaver, and ex- 
changing of wampum and presents than the making of the 
compact itself. The peace thus concluded lasted for less than a 



DEATH OF FATHER JOGUES. 



285 



year. Early in the winter of 1646 a band of Christian Indians from 
Sillery was attacked, and three of them were killed; but it was 
proved that the onslaught was made by members of the Soko- 
quiois tribe, who were not members of the confederacy and had 
not been a party to the treaty. 

The belief that the Mohawks, at any rate, would be true to their 
pledges was expressed by a visit of Father Jogues to the scene of 
his former sufterings. He neither heard nor saw anything to shake 
confidence in their sincerity. So satisfied was he that a field for 
successful missionary effort existed among them that, after re- 
porting to Governor Montmagny, whom he met at Fort Richelieu, 
he returned with a lay brother, La Lande, to the Mohawk country. 
His Algonquin guides, anticipating trouble, deserted, but, 
nothing daunted, the two brave and devoted men tramped 
through the forest until they reached an Iroquois village. There, 
without any ostensible reason, they were seized, stripped, 
gagged, exposed to every contumely, moved from place to place, 
and finally killed. The horrible war had thus broken out afresh 
with greater animosity than ever. The Governor and his priestly 
advisers seem to have put more faith in the promises of the Iro- 
quois than either their Indian allies or the colonists, for Mont- 
magny had withdrawn nearly the whole garrison from Fort Riche- 
lieu, and Father Lalemant, now Superior, had gone into raptures 
over the fact that the Iroquois and Algonquins were hunting the 
moose together north of the St. Lawrence. The Algonquins did 
not share his enthusiasm or his confidence. The first ])reach of the 
peace was made by some of the Scnecas, who, prowling around a 
Huron bourgade, could not resist the temptation, when all were 
asleep, of scaling the palisade and killing one man and scalping 
another. Reprisals at once of course followed. 

In all probability the renewal of hostility by the Mohawks 
was due to superstitious impulse. A strange epidemic 
had broken out in the tribe and carried off many of its 
members. The summer of peace had unfortunately been re- 
markable for a bad harvest and a plague of insects, closely fol- 
lowed by famine and disease. A number of Hurons who had 
not yielded to the influence of the missionaries, but were still 



286 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

wedded to their ancient superstitions, had been incorporated 
into the tribe, and these told of the spread of disease and all 
the woes which had followed the advent of the Black Robes and 
the acceptance of Christianity by their tribesmen. Father Jogues 
had left a small valise in his lodge. This was regarded as a 
veritable Pandora box, and caused the most abject terror. The 
Governor and the priests had been warned that it would be un- 
safe to proselytize among the Iroquois ; and, on his previous visit 
as an ambassador, Jogues is said not to have worn his soutane, 
and to have forborne preaching the tenets of Christianity. On 
his return with the avowed purpose of persuading the Iroquois to 
accept the gospel and repudiate their medicine men, his reward 
was martyrdom. In this case, as often since, the preaching that 
was meant to bring peace brought a sword. 

The treaty of peace and the temporary security of theNipissing 
and Ottawa route made the season of 1645 ^ prosperous one. 
The prosperity, however, was short-lived, for the treaty be- 
tween the company and the habitants, though it promised 
great things, was really productive of more heartburning 
and dissension than profit to the people at large. We have 
seen that, at the outset, there was misunderstanding as to the pur- 
pose of the treaty and the extent of its provisions. Then a 
question was raised as to the relation of the Jesuit Fathers to the 
new company, and this had hardly been settled when a revolt in 
Quebec arose against Mons. Noel Juchereau de Chastelet, the gen- 
eral manager of the local company. Certain leaders of the people, 
— whether self-constituted or elected, is uncertain — got up an 
agitation in January, 1646, against de Chastelet himself, charging 
him with riotous living and neglect of their interests. To please 
such an ill-assorted body of traders as those composing the new 
company must have been as difficult a task as it would be to satis- 
fy a communistic society. Mons. Robineau, attached to the 
Governor's household, was one of the ringleaders, and gave his 
Excellency a warrant for taking severe measures against the mal- 
contents. The agitation subsided under coercive treatment, and 
owing to the impossibility of securing united action on the part 
of a scattered population, destitute of political organization, and 



THE COLONISTS DISSATISFIED. 



287 



without any real community of interest. The result was inevit- 
able, for the majority of the population were under the influence 
of the priests ; and they, on principle, opposed any revolt against 
constituted authority. They may, besides, have considered this 
agitation as a protest against the settlement arrived at through 
their arbitration in the September previous. 

Though the rebellious movement had been suppressed for 
the moment, the spirit of revolt had been excited, not only 
against trade monopoly, but against political nonentity. The 
agitation soon bore fruit. The summer of 1646 was profitable. 
Eighty canoes arrived at the trading post of Three Rivers, and 
Father Lalemant says that the share of the people's company was 
160 poingons of beaver skins as against 98 of the year before. 
The poingon weighed 200 pounds, and the value per pound was 
ten peltries. But no one was satisfied. Those who acted as man- 
agers for the company wanted higher pay, and could not obtain it. 
The Jesuits considered that the 1,200 francs allowed them for 
each of their missions of Quebec, Three Rivers and the Georgian 
Bay was insufficient. Finally, all who were not directly employed 
by the new company, or who derived no benefit from it, were its 
awowed and open enemies. The only remedy seemed to lie in an 
appeal for a revision of the treaty, and also for some measure of 
representative government for the people of the colony. To secure 
these ends an influential delegation sailed with the fleet on the first 
of October. Father Quentin went to advocate the rights and in- 
terests of his order. The others were Robert Hache, M. de 
Maisonneuve, M. Gififard and M. Tronquet, each probably view- 
ing the situation from his own standpoint, but all alike anxious 
for some betterment of existing conditions. With the sailing of 
the fleet darkness, as regards news, settles down on the colony. 

An event occurred this year (1646) which was destined to 
have results beyond what could then be foreseen. An alliance 
was concluded with tliree of the Alf^onquin tribes occu])yini:^ the 
forests between the St. Lawrence and the seaboard to the 
south, the Kanibas, the Etchemins, and the Micmacs. They 
sought the assistance of France against the Iroquois, and 
against a still more aggressive foe, the colonists of New 



288 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



England. They had already learned some of the rudiments 
of Christianity from Capuchin monks, who had established a mis- 
sion on the headwaters of the Kennebec. They soon became 
docile pupils of the Jesuits, who in time converted the whole 
of the tribes, and brought them so completely under their influence 
that they became a powerful and serviceable fighting force against 
the inhabitants of the adjacent English colonies. Quebec was their 
rallying point, and their trade therefore, whatever it amounted to, 
was tributary to Quebec. As spiritual adviser of this new native 
confederation, and at the same time as a diplomatic agent — for 
his double mission was to convert the tribes and consolidate them 
as allies into a political confederacy — an extremely capable man 
was appointed in the person of Father Gabriel Druillettes. We 
shall meet him again as ambassador from the Governor of Canada 
to Winthrop, the Governor of Massachusetts. 

During the following winter the people of Quebec needed all 
the cheer they could get from favorable facts or hopeful fan- 
cies, for the gloom of impending calamity filled every heart, how- 
ever bravely — like cheerful French folk that they were — they 
might be able to face trouble with a laugh or a bon mot. In the 
June following (1647) the news reached Quebec of the death 
of Father Jogues, which had occurred in October of the pre- 
vious year. All hope of peace with the Iroquois, it was clearly 
seen, had to be abandoned. Nevertheless, during that summer no 
very atrocious acts of hostility, compared at least with what fol- 
lowed, were perpetrated by that nation. They burned Fort Riche- 
lieu, which in overconfidence had been abandoned the previous au- 
tumn; and they commenced their campaign of annihilation by 
selecting for their first victims the Algonquin tribes of the Ot- 
tawa. The anxiety of the colonists would have been insupport- 
able, had they not been encouraged by the hope that their delegates 
would succeed in securing some slight measure of self-govern- 
ment from the home authorities, and that this might place it 
in their power to provide for their own protection. On the 
23rd of June the first ships arrived, and must have brought 
news of the negotiation, and probably of its result, though 
the regulations were not promulgated by the King in Coun- 



A NEW CONSTITUTION. 



289 



cil until March 27th (1647), ^f^er the sailing of the ship. 
These were designed to protect the people against the of- 
ficers of their own company no less than against the agents 
of the One Hundred Associates. Each of the three towns of Que- 
bec, Three Rivers and Montreal was to select a syndic who should 
hold office for three years. In this respect the Constitution simply 
confirmed the concession stated by some historians to have been 
made in 1645. These syndics and the admiral of the fleet were 
admitted to the Council to plead for their constituencies and the 
interests they represented, but were not allowed even a deliberative 
voice. The Council itself was composed of the Governor and — 
until a Bishop should be created — the Superior of the Jesuits' 
house in Quebec, together with the Governor of the Island of 
Montreal. In the absence of the Governor and the Governor of 
Montreal, their lieutenants were to represent them. The Council 
was ordered to meet in the Company's warehouse (la maison 
commune ou est estably le magasin de Quebecq.)* The Council 
had the right to appoint the Admiral, Captain, and other 
officers of the trading fleet; but no elected member of Coun- 
cil or official might hold office for more than three years. 
The Council also had the right to audit the company's ac- 
counts, and to fix the prices of all articles bought or used 
in bartering. The habitants were permitted to exchange 
their farm products with the Indians for furs, but all peltries had 
still to be turned in to the company's store at a price determined 
by the Council. Only the company's ships might enter the river, 
and their cargoes must be sold in France. From the proceeds of 
the sale in France the following deductions were to be made : 
25,000 francs for the payment of the Governor and the civil offi- 
cers of Quebec and Three Rivers, the officers and soldiers, and for 
feeding the little army of seventy men ; 10,000 francs for main- 
taining the civil and military establishment of Montreal, and 5,000 
francs for the support of the Jesuit establishment. The budget 
was certainly not an extravagant one; but as, in addition to the 
payment of these 40,000 francs, the company's stores and officials 

*The full text of this first constitutional charter of New France is given in 
the "Revue Canadienne," Montreal, 1894, page 353. 



290 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

in Canada and in France, and the whole fleet of ships, had to be 
maintained, the revenue from furs, especially in time of war, or 
in bad seasons, when the supply was short, must necessarily have 
been small. Hence the temptation to smuggle. And that smug- 
gling was rife is curiously illustrated by an entry in the Jesuits* 
Journal, of the 19th of the month following the promulgation of 
the new regulation. The treatment of the fur trade at Sillery, we 
thus discover, had assumed the proportions of a case of conscience, 
which had been gravely deliberated by the Superior, Father Lale- 
mant, and his two predecessors in oflice. Fathers le Jeune and 
Vimont. It was open to doubt whether furs should be made an 
object of traffic at any establishment supported for essentially reli- 
gious and missionary purposes. But as it was distinctly conducive 
to the popularity and the success of the mission that it should be a 
market for peltries, it was determined to permit the trade. Then 
the question arose whether all the furs so purchased had to pass 
through the company's store. The regulations required it, but — 
the Company was not always liberal in its scale of payment. The 
decision come to on this knotty point was : First, that if the store 
would offer reasonable prices, those who bought these furs were in 
conscience bound not to divert them elsewhere (that could only 
mean not to smuggle them out of the country). Secondly, if the 
store were unreasonable, then one might practice deception with a 
good conscience or without incurring sin ("dissimuler en con- 
science"), inasmuch as the people had a natural right, and per- 
mission from the King, to engage in trade. Thirdly, whether 
reasonable or not, the Jesuits must not engage in trade. 

A month before this 260 pounds of beaver skins had been 
seized in the chamber of Mons. le Prieur, the chaplain of 
the Ursulines. He had made no secret of his having them, and 
openly boasted he would not sell them to the store unless at a 
good price. This the store declined to pay. They were there- 
fore confiscated. It is consequently evident that the only alter- 
native to selling to the store at the authorized prices was smug- 
gling. Channels for smuggling had been opened years before, to 
evade the trading prohibition of the old company, and these had 
been kept open by the habitants, who wished to escape the im- 



DELEGATES SEXT TO FRANCE. 



291 



posts laid on their goods by the new company. The colonists had 
in reahty profited Httle by the change. The old company retained 
all their seignorial rights, so that free land was forbidden them, 
and now trade was oppressed by so many burdens that it availed 
them little or nothing. Instead of being the prey of the company 
of New France, they were the victims of their own officials, and 
there was little to choose between them, as the sequel showed. 
One trading company was load enough for any struggling colony 
to support. Two proved insupportable. 

The same ships which brought the news of the deliberations 
brought also the first horse imported into Canada. It was a 
present from the people to their Governor. The two longest roads 
or trails were to Sillery, even then known as the Grande Allee, 
and that following the present Ste. Genevieve hill to the Jesuits' 
house of Notre Dames des Anges. Oxen and cows had probably 
been used as beasts of burden on such narrow trails, for the horse 
was not introduced into Canada for nearly thirty years after the 
establishment of the colony ; but so great a favorite with the in- 
habitants did the nobler animal become, that it was propagat- 
ed to the detriment of the more profitable horned cattle. When 
for two years prior to the siege of Quebec, in 1759, famine threat- 
ened the inhabitants, Montcalm said that horse flesh was eaten at 
his table in every form, with the exception of horse soup. Bigot 
reported that it was to the interest of the colony to slaughter 3,000 
horses, instead of that number of horned cattle. 

Impatient to exercise their limited functions of government, 
the people of Quebec sent a deputation to the Governor on the 
29th of June, asking i)crmission to elect their syndics; but, as 
the formal order in Council had not been received, the request 
was refused. It was not until the 21st of July that they were 
allowed to elect their representatives. The choice of the citizens 
fell on Mons. Bourdon, whose first act was to request the Gover- 
nor to assume control of the Company of the Inhabitants and 
relieve the directors and officers of that function. Evidently 
feeling ran high a,<^ainst their own board, for we find another de- 
putation proceeding to France to solicit amelioration of the com- 
pany's conditions. It consisted of Mons. d'Aillcbout and Mons. 



292 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

Maisonneuve, as partners in the Montreal company, and Mons, 
Noel Juchereau de Chastelet, the company's chief clerk. In the 
absence of the latter his post was conferred on Mons. Bourdon. 
De Chastelet never returned. Whether the dissatisfaction was 
due to actual maladministration, or to disappointment at the 
meagre results of a change from which so much had been hoped, 
it is impossible to determine. If the Company of the One 
Hundred Associates could not make money, there is no 
reason to suppose that the habitants' company fared 
better, encumbered as it was, not only with the administra- 
tive charges incident to its own maintenance, but also with 
what may be called an excise for the support of the colony. The 
incentive to individual energy which individual profit supplies was 
lacking. Remedy after remedy was applied as one after another 
failed, but never the only remedy which could have made the city 
prosperous — that of committing to the inhabitants, as free men, the 
right of each to think for himself and act for himself, within the 
limits of respect for what was due to others. 

As the summer advanced the depredations of the Iroquois 
became so menacing that grave anxiety was felt for the safety of 
Sillery ; and the half Christianized Indians could not be restrained 
from venting their rage on the few captives they made, according 
to their immemorial usage. Montmagny was sorely perplexed. 
Either he had to tolerate customs of hideous barbarity or lose 
control of his fickle allies in a crisis when their defection might 
be fatal. When, early in September, the Sillery warriors 
brought in an Iroquois captive, he claimed him, and for more than 
a week protected him from their fiendish hands, but at length was 
constrained to hand him over to his tormentors, who, by way of 
compromise, cut short his agony after one hour's torture. The 
Jesuit Fathers, who did what they could to mitigate his sufiering, 
had the satisfaction of baptizing the poor fellow, thus horribly 
executed in a manner most repulsive to their principles — for there 
had never been a stain of Dominicanism on their milder system, 
however absolute it was in matters of faith. 

With Indians lurking at every commanding point on the Ot- 
tawa route, few furs were coming to the habitant warehouse, and 



RECALL OF MONTMAGNY. 



yet the new company was bound to support both the State and the 
Church. The revenues of the old company from the Sague- 
nay country must have been more scanty still. It was a dreary 
winter, therefore, that of 1647- 1648. The air was full of alarming 
rumors, and the situation fraught with much real danger; but no 
heart fainted while there were men of heroic mould, like Chas- 
tillon, willing to face all the dangers of a journey through a 
country infested by Iroquois to carry the Governor's message 
of hope and encouragement to the Hurons on the far distant 
Georgian Bay. The slight reliance to be put on Algonquin 
bravery was forcing itself very painfully on the minds of the 
colonists. Noel's band, for instance, started with the usual Indian 
ostentation and brag from Sillery in June, but returned with 
big words and no scalps in July. As Father Lalemant remarks, the 
very Iroquois prisoners laughed at these preparations for mimic 
war, which had also become a farce in the eyes of the French. 
Apprehension was therefore rife, though no one dreamt in his 
gloomiest moments of what was happening in the Huron country 
in that same summer, when the first act in the terrible drama of 
the extermination of the Hurons was being enacted, and the noble 
Father Daniel preferred to die as a martyr with his dusky flock 
rather than deprive them of his ministrations in their hour of 
supreme need. 

The arrival of the fleet — the great event of the season to 
the Quebecer — brought several surprises. Mons. d'Aillebout 
had gone over the previous summer with Mons. de Chastelet, the 
C ommissaire-General of the inhabitants, to lay the grievances of 
the people before the Royal Council. Mons. d'Aillebout returned 
in command of the fleet, with his commission as Governor in place 
of the Sieur de Montmagny. De Rcpentigny had been deprived 
temporarily of the command as Admiral on account of the dis- 
approval he had expressed of some of the new measures ; but he 
was loyally returning in his own fleet as a passenger, when he 
died on the voyage. Thus two of the most prominent figures of 
these early days — de Chastelet and de Repentigny — disappear. 
D'Aillebout and de Chastelet had secured notable concessions, 
which, if they had been literally and liberally carried into execu- 



^94 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

tion, would have mitigated the hardships of the people. The 
syndics were now empowered to vote, whereas previously they 
were merely consultatory members. The company's contribution to 
the Governor's salary was reduced to 10,000 francs, and it 
was not obliged to maintain more than twelve soldiers for 
the defense of Quebec. The Governors of Montreal and Three 
Rivers were to be paid 3,000 francs each, and the company 
was to support six soldiers in each of these towns. But the 19,000 
francs thus deducted for services was to be expended in a flying 
column of forty men, destined for the protection of weak points 
and also to serve as escort for volunteer traders to the Huron coun- 
try. The edict in fact constituted a Charter of Rights, conferring 
on the Council the power of regulating trade, of declaring war and 
making peace, of establishing courts of justice, and organizing a 
police force. But it did not abolish the landed privileges of the 
old company, nor did it introduce or suggest the machinery for 
rendering the privileges it conferred operative. The provisions 
made for the military protection of the colony, and of its helpless 
allies, from the depredations of the thousands of Iroquois braves, 
armed, in even greater numbers than formerly, with arquebuses, 
were ludicrously insufficient ; and trade was not relieved from the 
insupportable restrictions dictated by the parsimonious policy of 
the mother country, which expected to build up a thriving colony 
without incurring any expense. 

The recall of the Chevalier Montmagny, who had been re- 
appointed Governor in 1645, at a salary of 3,000 livres, was a 
great surprise. In the short interval the policy of the home 
government is said to have been changed by the refusal of de 
Poince, Governor of the French West India Islands, to resign his 
appointment when ordered home. It was then decided to reduce 
all gubernatorial appointments to three years, and de Montmagny 
was one of the first to be brought under the rule. 

His administration had been a failure, if judged by the pro- 
gress of the colony. The most energetic of Governors would 
have been crippled by the position in which he was placed 
of subserviency to a commercial company, which would 
neither do anything itself, nor permit anyone else to do 



DIFFICULTIES OF MONTMAGNy's POSITION. 



anything; yet we do not learn that Montmagny complained. 
He was a Knight of Malta, and therefore under ecclesiasti- 
cal vows, as was also the Lieutenant-Governor, Mons. de 
risle. The Jesuit Fathers were his devoted associates and 
counsellors. He was avowedly actuated by an ardent zeal 
for the conversion of the natives, and it is not impossible that 
the welfare of the colony — in a commercial or mercantile sense — 
was inferior in importance, in his estimation, to the evangeliza- 
tion of the aborigines. As this was ostensibly the prime object 
which the Crown of France had kept in view from the time of 
Francis I. onward, Montmagny can hardly be blamed for acting 
up to the letter of his instructions. He was active and pains- 
taking, answering promptly every summons to the point of dan- 
ger, but he was not keen in pushing commerce. Olivier, the 
forerunner of that wonderful band of Canadian explorers who 
penetrated to the recesses of the northern half of the continent 
generations before any English-speaking men attempted to follow 
in their footsteps, had sighted Lake Superior, but his story of that 
inland sea fell on deaf ears.* The range of the Governor's activity 
was almost confined to the river between Quebec and Montreal. 
With the small white force at his command, he may well have been 
cowed by the overwhelming power of the Iroquois. But if 
he could not defend himself and his allies, five hundred miles 
away on the Georgian Bay, his true course would have been to 
draw them in, to concentrate his forces, and oppose a bold face 
to the insulting Iroquois challenge. The French alliance with the 
Hurons and their acceptance of Christianity, which made all hope 
of future amalgamation with the Confederacy impossible, were 
the aggravating causes of a war in conducting which he dis- 
played neither energy as a general nor slircwdness as a politician. 
He was neither a Champlain nor a Frontcnac. He lacked the 
enthusiasm, the eager activity and personal initiative which im- 
pelled Champlain to take the field, and which won for him the 
honor of being the first white man to explore Lake Champlain 
and to cleave the waters of Lakes Huron and Ontario. Morc- 

*The poor fellow was drowned near Sillery, for, like many others who have 
exposed themselves to danger in their explorations by water, he could not swim. 



296 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



over, when Champlain was dissatisfied with the conduct of the 
colonial officers in France, he went thither to ar^ue his case in 
person. Had Frontenac been in Montmagny's place, his military 
instinct would have driven him to devise some plan for using 
the whole miHtary strength of the Huron nation for their own 
protection and that of the colonists. Montmagny's deplorable 
trustfulness, or irresolution, resulted in the extermination of the 
Hurons and in dwarfing and arresting the growth of the colony. 
The lethargy of the company, due in great measure to their in- 
solvency, was no doubt primarily responsible for the moribund 
condition of the colony. But a man of more resources would either 
have compelled the government of France and the company to 
fulfil their obligations, or taken some steps to organize 
the fighting material, white and Indian, within his reach for 
the purpose of checking the common foe. At that time the 
Hurons were still a powerful tribe of undoubted bravery. Armed 
with guns, they would have been a match, with the aid of the 
colonists, for the Iroquois. The Jesuits estimated their number 
at over 30,000, which would have given them at least 4,000 war- 
riors. When rescued from the Georgian Bay they were a tremb- 
Hng, dispirited remnant, worthless as fighting material. 

The most valuable work Montmagny did was in effecting an al- 
liance with the Algonquin tribes lying between the St. Lawrence 
and Acadia and Maine, and welding them into a political unit to 
be used in opposing Iroquois aggression and New England ex- 
pansion. This was a wise and long-sighted move, which he was 
enabled successfully to make through the agency of his ecclesi- 
astical coadjutors. The political assistance of the Jesuits was 
never used in Canada to greater advantage than in thus rais- 
ing, without any ostensible hostility of purpose, a bulwark 
against the advance of the English towards the St. Lawrence. 
It proved almost as insurmountable as that which the Iroquois 
alliance with the Dutch and EngHsh presented against any en- 
croachment of the French to the east of Lakes Ontario and Erie. 
In these events, and in the narrow field of Canadian poHtics, we 
can more clearly detect the strong and the weak points of ecclesi- 
astical statecraft, and trace more distinctly the results of the 



SLOW PROGRESS OF THE COLONY, 



297 



confusion of things spiritual and things temporal in the history 
of Jesuitism than would be possible in the more involved drama 
of European intrigue. 

The Iroquois war and financial stagnation combined to arrest 
immigration. Only nineteen families are known to have immi- 
grated during the four years prior to IMontmagny's removal. 
Suite gives a list, which he considers approximately correct, of 
120 heads of families, as constituting the entire population of 
Canada in 1645. The number is small, but they came from the 
best stock of the very best provinces of northern France; every 
man brought his helpmate with him, and not a girl of marriage- 
able age remained a spinster in the colony. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



Governor d'Aillebout's Administration and the Negotia- 
tion for a Reciprocity Treaty with New England. 

It may not have been a coincidence that the dismissal of Mont- 
magny and his replacement as Governor by Monsieur d'Aille- 
bout, after the appointment had been offered, and, so rumor said, 
refused by Maisonneuve himself, followed close on visits by both 
the leaders of the Montreal colony to France, but there is nothing 
in the transaction, or in the known character of Maisonneuve, to 
warrant a suspicion of intrigue. He doubtless believed that 
the safety of the colony was involved in the maintenance of Mon- 
treal, whereas from the first Montmagny had opposed the estab- 
lishment of the Montreal colony, giving as his reason that the 
forces at his disposal for repelling the Iroquois were small, and 
that he thought it wiser to concentrate than to scatter. Three 
Rivers was a vulnerable point. Whether wisely or not, we have 
seen that he abandoned the fort at the mouth of the Richelieu. 
When Maisonneuve arrived in the autumn of 1640 trouble was 
already brewing. Montmagny, who was aware of the fact, did 
his best to persuade him to establish an Indian mission 
near Quebec, offering him the Island of Orleans in lieu of 
the Island of Montreal, but to no purpose. The ostensible reason 
for the recall of Montmagny was the necessity of complying with 
the rule fixing the gubernatorial term of office at three years ; yet 
he had been reappointed under this rule in 1645. 

Calamity so terrible soon overtook the colony, that the kind- 
hearted Knight of Malta, in his retirement in France, must have 
pitied his unfortunate successor, though he was too true a soldier 
to rejoice in his escape either from danger or from responsibility. 
His retirement from the stage of active life was so complete that 
history never again gives us a clear glimpse of the man who, if 
he did not frame the policy under which New France was to be 




portrait supposed to be of M. l oui^ d" Ailkbout. 
I>y the kind permission ofCoI. Norman Neilson. 



A NEW CONSTITUTION. 



299 



governed, was the agent who put that pohcy first into motion, and 
who transmitted the Indian equivalent of his name — Onontio — 
(Anglice, Great ^Mountain) — to his successors. 

During d'Aillebout's term of office, which extended to 165 1, 
events were not conducive to the growth of the town or of the 
colony. Three incidents, however, rendered his administration 
memorable. These were : First, the inauguration of the more liberal 
constitution which he brought out in his portfolio. Secondly, the 
tragedy on the Georgian Bay, which resulted in the extermination 
of the Hurons as a powerful nation, and the transplanting of the 
small remnant to Quebec. Thirdly, the continuation of the nego- 
tiation with New England for a commercial treaty, and an of- 
fensive and a defensive alliance against the Iroquois, which had 
been inaugurated by Montmagny. 

The new constitution did not enlarge to any notable extent the 
prerogatives already enjoyed by the people. The Council of 
1647 was composed of the Governor, the Superior of the 
Jesuits or the Bishop, and the Governor of [Montreal, with, as act- 
ive members, the Governor of the Fleet and the syndics of Que- 
bec, Three Rivers and Montreal. The new Council of 1648 was 
composed of the Governor, the Superior of the Jesuits or the 
Bishop, the ex-Governor of the Colony, and in his absence an in- 
habitant to be chosen by the colonists ; two inhabitants, to hold of- 
fice for three years, to be chosen by the Council and the syndics of 
Quebec, Three Rivers and ]Montreal. The two popular representa- 
tives and the substitute for the ex-Governor, In the first Council, 
were the Sieurs Chavigny, Godefroy and Giffard, all three men of 
note and of property. If d'Aillebout really solicited the appoint- 
ment of Governor when he went to France, as one of the delegates 
sent by the colonists to plead for reform, he was disinterested 
in procuring a reduction of the Governor's salary to 10.000 
Hvres, and of his free freight from 70 to 12 tons, and of his body- 
guard to twelve soldiers. Corresponding reductions, as we have 
seen, were made in the salaries and perquisites of the governors of 
Montreal and Three Rivers. 

The diversion created by the arrival of the Governor and tlic 
promulgation of the new constitution, followed by the appearance 



300 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

at Three Rivers, after two years' intermission, of two hundred and 
fifty Huron canoes, loaded with furs, encouraged people to believe 
that Montmagny's dread of the Iroquois War was an exaggerated 
apprehension. Ignorant of the designs of their foes, the In- 
dian traders started back from Three Rivers, accompanied by 
some thirty French laymen and the Jesuit Fathers Bressani, Bonin, 
Greslon, Daron and Gabriel Lalemant. The last-mentioned 
was journeying straight to his death. Elated by a victory 
they had gained over a band of Iroquois which had at- 
tacked them at Three Rivers, the Hurons considered them- 
selves invincible, and neglected the most ordinary pre- 
cautions. The Iroquois, on the other hand, confident of their 
power, doomed the whole nation to extermination, and struck the 
first fatal blow on the i6th of the following March (1649), when 
the bourgade of St. Ignace was completely obliterated, all its in- 
habitants, together with Father Gabriel, being slaughtered. The 
next blow fell speedily on the neighboring mission of St. Louis. 
There two more martyrs, Brebeuf and Gabriel Lalemant, won the 
martyr's crown after suffering the most cruel tortures. But of 
all these terrible events; of the death of their dearest personal 
friends, and the destruction of their most cherished hopes of 
spreading the tenets of Christianity and the power of France, 
through the agency of the Huron nation, the Jesuit Fathers, at 
their headquarters in Quebec, were utterly ignorant until June 
20, when the following brief entry occurs in Father Guillaume 
Lalemant's Journal : "During the night we received the sad news 
of the destruction of the Hurons and the martyrdom of the three 
fathers." Full details were brought by Father Bressani in Sep- 
tember. The havoc wrought among the Hurons did not, how- 
ever, entirely put a stop to trading, for with him were 
Huron and French traders, bringing 5,000 beaver skins, worth 
26,000 francs. A French soldier and his brother, who had spent 
only one year in Huronia, returned loaded down with 747 pounds 
of beaver, worth four or five francs the pound. The incongruous 
mingling of tragedy and commerce has, however, not been con- 
fined to early American history. 

Giving little thought to the peril impending over the Lake 



HUROX VICTIMS AND JESUIT MARTYRS. 



301 



country, society at Quebec in the winter of 1648-9 was gayer 
than usual, for the vice-regal court was at last presided over 
by a lady — Madame d'Aillebout. Her sister, Madame Philippine 
du Boulanque, had accompanied her from Montreal, but at once 
entered the Ursuline convent as a novice. The Governor's wife, 
though as devoutly disposed towards a religious life as her sister, 
could not take the vows unless her husband also entered a monas- 
tery. She therefore waited until his death in 1660 before trying 
the experiment. After a short novitiate she abandoned it ; never- 
theless she was proof, so rumor says, against the matrimonial at- 
tacks of two subsequent governors. We can picture her to our- 
selves as one of those charming, lively, sympathetic women who 
can be sincerely and actively religious without being austere, and 
gay without being frivolous. 

Quebec certainly needed all the consolation and courage 
wliich religion, the sanguine, happy temperament of the 
Governor's wife, and the natural lighthcartedness of its 
people, could impart to support it through the trials of 
the next two years; for the policy of revenge and extermina- 
tion was pursued by the Iroquois with relentless fury and 
untiring vigilance. In the autumn of 1649 Father Charles Gamier 
preferred to die with his converts, rather than escape from the 
bourgade of St. Jean, which was attacked and destroyed when 
its warriors were absent. Another martyr had still to be added 
to the list. Father Chabanel was Father Garnier's colleague in 
the St. Jean mission, and was on his way with a band of Hurons 
to the Sault Ste. Marie. Fearing at night the approach of an 
enemy, his Huron companions fled more rapidly than he could 
follow. He was supposed at first to have perished from cold and 
hunger in the forest, but subsequently a Huron took credit for 
having killed him in revenge for the untold misery his order had 
brought upon his nation. On the other hand, it is a most pathetic 
proof of the depth of conviction with which the Christian teach- 
ings of the Jesuit Fathers had imbued their converts, that 
they did not one and all adopt this superstitious explanation of 
their calamities, and, by ridding themselves, in the same summary 
manner, of the supposed evil influence, make a bid for the favor of 



302 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

their persecutors. There is, in fact, no positive proof that Father 
Chabanel did thus meet his death, and it is certain that none other 
of the missionary band received aught else than protection and 
reverence at the hands of the unhappy fugitives. 

Some of the Hurons sought refuge with friendly tribes ; some 
surrendered, and were incorporated into the families of their con- 
querors; others escaped in small parties to the St. Lawrence and 
joined the one band which retained any semblance of national 
identity, being thus brought into close relation with the city of 
Quebec. The Jesuits of St. Mary, when the defence of that mis- 
sion became clearly impossible, induced their converts and the 
forty s^culaires — servants who had pledged themselves, without 
taking vows, to serve for life in menial occupations without pay — 
to seek safety on the Island of St. Joseph, now called Christian 
Island. There famine and disease threatened to complete the work 
of the Iroquois tomahawks. In despair they prayed Father Ra- 
guenau to lead them to Quebec. He consented, and with as little 
delay and as profound secrecy and silence as possible, the 
members of the mission and three hundred Huron Christians 
started on their dreary pilgrimage of nearly a thousand miles by 
forest trail, lake and river. Only three hundred ! — and yet Father 
Ragueneau states that during the previous year he and his fellow- 
priests baptized more than three thousand Indians. Ten years 
previously the country contained from eight to ten thousand 
Hurons — one estimate mentions 20,000 — and this was the rem- 
nant ! Once, on their perilous march, the advance guard fell back 
and reported that they had heard sounds and seen traces of human 
beings. These proved to be Father Bressani with twenty 
Indians and forty plucky colonists, hastening to the relief 
of their fellow countrymen and Indian allies. There re- 
mained none to whom human hand could render help on 
the once populous and happy shores of the Georgian Bay; 
the relief party, therefore, joined the fugitives, thus com- 
posing a force too strong to be safely attacked — for no warriors 
calculate chances more accurately than Indian braves, and none 
are so averse to attacking against odds. After fifty days of toil- 
some journeying they reached what they might with confidence 



The first Ursuline Convent, burnt in 1650. 
Madame de la Peltrie's house is in the foreground 
From an old painting in the Ursuline Convent. 
Reproduced from Gli?npses of a Monastery. 



PROPOSED TREATY WITH NEW ENGLAND. 



have supposed would be their haven of refuge — Quebec. They 
numbered more than their hosts. Some were received at the Hotel 
Dieu. The Ursulines threw their convent open to the girls 
and women. The wealthier families undertook to support each an 
Indian family ; but, after all the fountains of local charity had been 
exhausted, two hundred starving creatures were left to the kindly 
care of the Jesuits, whose hands, though nearly empty, were still 
held forth to help them. Heavy as was the drain which the hungry, 
helpless, famine-stricken fugitives made on their scanty resources, 
they had to prepare, ere winter set in, for the probable advent of 
some three hundred more — the remnant of the race — who, it was 
hoped, would succeed in eluding the snares laid for them by their 
relentless enemies. 

The third event of note in Governor d'Aillebout's administra- 
tion was Father Druillettes' mission to New England. 

It has already been mentioned that in 1645 M. de Mont- 
magny made a shrewd move, in enlisting in the interest of 
the French, the Algonquin tribes settled along the frontier of 
New England. They had received the rudiments of Chris- 
tianity from some Capuchin monks, who were dwelling among 
them ; but the Superior of the Jesuits selected for their spiritual 
guide Father Druillettes. He was a man of very varied abilities. 
As a missionary to the Algonquin tribes, occupying the country 
drained by the Chaudierc River, now in the province of Quebec, 
and the northern portions of the present State of Maine, he won 
them over so effectually to Christianity that whole tribes be- 
came forever obedient servants of the Church and vassals of 
the Crown of France. His talents were recognized by the au- 
thorities, and when an ambassador was required to negotiate with 
the colonies of Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth an offensive and 
defensive alliance against the Iroquois, with tlie tempting 
bait of a reciprocity treaty of trade thrown in, he was the man 
chosen. He acquitted himself so dexterously in this delicate 
situation, and managed the negotiations with such diplomatic 
temper, that he was twice received in his official capacity by 
Deputy Governor Dudley, though the laws of the colony exposed 
him to arrest as a Jesuit ; and so cultivated was he as a scholar and 



304 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



theologian that, despite their antagonistic views, he became the 
welcome guest of Eliot, the Puritan missionary to the Indians. 

When we find men, not only of such ability, but of such intel- 
lectual attainments, forsaking the refinements of society and con- 
demning themselves to lives of physical hardship, and, worse still, 
of intellectual and social banishment among a starving, wandering 
and debased tribe like the Abenaki Indians, we obtain a gauge by 
which to measure the devotion that animated them. To a man of 
Father Druillettes' breadth of mind and education placed in such 
circumstances, the commission to act as political agent in an im- 
portant negotiation must have been peculiarly agreeable. The zest 
and ability with which he executed the commission explains the 
tendency of the Jesuit Order to make of its members both 
politicians and priests. Men of such marked ability, such profound 
learning and such knowledge of the world — qualities which, as 
a body, they alone among the regular clergy possessed — ^would 
possess peculiar adaptation for political functions. It must be re- 
membered that the line of demarcation between the provinces of 
statecraft and religion was not in those days so well defined as it 
has since become in Protestant lands. The ministers of New 
England, when Father Druillettes went thither on his diplomatic 
mission, looked upon the direction of politics as one of their most 
sacred duties. That the domination of priests, in Canada, and of 
ministers in New England, led to very different results, does not 
do away with the fact that the right of the Church to control the 
State was then a fundamental axiom of the ecclesiastical policy 
of English Prelatists, of Puritans and of the Church of Rome. 

The negotiations looking towards a reciprocity treaty between 
New France and New England seem to have been informally 
opened by New England, in either 1647 or 1648, during Mont- 
magny's administration, but to have come to naught. It is not 
easy to conceive of any trade agreement by which advantage 
would be conferred on English colonists, meeting with the ap- 
proval of the government of France. The only article exported 
by New France was furs, and for these New England would at 
any time have offered a better market than France, under the re- 
strictions which the laws of the colony imposed. This would have 



FATHER DRUILLETTES. 



been the strongest reason why RicheHeu would never have con- 
sented to the diversion of that lucrative traffic to England through 
EngHsh colonies. On the other hand, England, if consulted, would 
never have consented to her colonies importing French wines 
and French goods from Canada. The St. Lawrence always 
did carry on more or less of a contraband trade with New Eng- 
land, but no treaty was ever framed with a view of actually legit- 
imising smuggling. That can best be done without a formal con- 
vention. As New England would doubtless have been able to 
carry on a profitable trade with the St. Lawrence, it is not sur- 
prising that the first proposal came from her. It does not appear 
that any response was made by the Government of New France. 

When the negotiation was revived by Governor d'Aillebout, 
two years later, the Iroquois campaign of extermination, which 
was only a threat in 1648, had become a horrible reality. The 
French Governor and his Council were, therefore, warranted in 
thinking that the New England colonists might regard Iroquois 
success and the extension of Iroquois power with as much alarm 
as they themselves felt. To advocate a campaign against the 
common enemy was the prominent motive of Father Druil- 
lettes' first mission in 1649. As he was the apostle of the 
Montagnais, who were likely to be the next flock of Chris- 
tian sheep to be devoured by those ravenous heathen wolves, it was 
fitting that the mission of seeking protection for his feeble con- 
verts should be committed to him. The negotiation of a commer- 
cial treaty does not seem to have been included in his formal in- 
structions. He has left us a full account of the incidents of his 
mission, and one which throws a less sombre light on New Eng- 
land life than it is usually invested with by popular fancy. 

He started as ambassador from Quebec on September ist, with- 
out much pomp or circumstance, accompanied only by Noel Nega- 
hamet, an Indian chief from Sillery, though with properly au- 
thenticated credentials to the New England authorities. He 
ascended the Chaudiere, and descended the Kennebec, which he 
spells Quenebcc, until he reached Narantsouiat, a camp of the 
Abenakis. On the following day they paddled down to Coussinoc, 
where the town of Augusta now stands, the outpost of the English 



3o6 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



settlements in that direction. The clerk in charge there was John 
Winslow, a brother of Edward Winslow, the agent of Massachu- 
setts in England. Noel produced a packet of beaver skins as a pre- 
sent to the Governor, and introduced the mission with the usual 
oratory. John Winslow, who had heard of Father Druillettes' la- 
bors among the Abenakis of the St. Lawrence and Iroquois, greeted 
him with fervor as a fellow Christian, animated by the same 
desire as his own brother Edward to elevate the Indians. He made 
him his guest and accompanied him to Boston. The journey at 
that season was tedious. The party was obliged to go ten leagues 
by land in order to take ship at Marimitin (Merrymeeting). They 
did not reach Boston till the 8th of December. While coasting 
from the mouth of the Kennebec, the presence on board of the 
French priest was looked upon with the gravest suspicion by the 
New England fishermen. Acadia had not yet been taken for good 
and all by Cromwell, and the New England coast stood in constant 
dread of attack from that quarter. But no suspicion annoyed him 
in Boston. His coming had been announced, and Major Gebin 
(Major Gibbons) welcomed him to his house and gave him a 
key to a room where he could practice the rites of his religion with- 
out interruption. It seems that Major Gibbons was a great friend 
of LaTour, that eccentric adventurer, whose vicissitudes, includ- 
ing the defense of his fort (La Tour on the Novia Scotia coast) 
by his heroic wife, and her subsequent death, are amongst the 
romantic episodes of Canadian history. Driven away from 
Acadia by his relentless enemy, Charnisay, he had sought refuge 
at Quebec, of all places in the world, notwithstanding his taint of 
Calvinism, and had there been hospitably received. He had gone 
thence to Boston to enlist the aid of the colony in righting his 
wrong, a proceeding savoring somewhat of treason. But it would 
seem that his generous treatment in Quebec had so mitigated his 
animosity that, like Balaam, he blessed where he had gone to 
curse.* 

* There must have been in La Tour's character a strange mixture of heroism, 
religious susceptibility, conviviality and calculating shrewdness, for after losing 
wife and all he had in the stubborn fight, he had the audacity to go to Quebec, 
where he won over the austere Catholic. Montmagny; then left in Boston such 
pleasant memories of good fellowship behind him, that the jolly Major was will- 



A JESUIT NEGOTIATOR AT BOSTON.. 



On the 9th of December Major Gibbons introduced the priestly 
ambassador to Governor Dudley at Rogsbury (Roxbury). Dudley 
having examined his credentials, called a meeting of the City Fath- 
ers (magistrates) on the 13th. On that date Druillettes was enter- 
tained at a public dinner, and stated his case, as he describes it, "to 
the magistrate, a man deputed by the people, whom they called a 
representative.'' They discussed his proposal for an offensive and 
defensive alliance against the Iroquois in secret session. Then all 
adjourned to supper before they informed him that the matter was 
beyond their jurisdiction, and that, as ambassador of the Catechu- 
mens of the Kennebec, he must appeal to the Council of the colony 
of Plymouth (the Kennebec was in the Plymouth grant.) To 
Plymouth, therefore, he went, where he was received by one of the 
five farmers of Koussenac called Padis.* 

William Brentford (Bradford) appointed the following day for 
an audience, and as it was Friday, in deference to his guest's reli- 
gious scruples, entertained him at a fish dinner. He remained there 
until the 24th, in constant conference ; but his account of the pro- 
ceedings was embodied in a special report, which was not pub- 
lished, for the Jesuit authorities always maintained a discreet 
silence in regard to such matters. 

On his journey back his hosts insisted on paying all expenses 
by the way. Reaching Rogsbury (Roxbury) at nightfall, he was 
the guest of a minister whom he calls Maitre Heliot, who he says 
was teaching some Indians. Their converse was so pleasant that 
Eliot entreated him to tarry and spend the winter with him.f Evi- 

ing to reciprocate even on the person of a Jesuit Father. lie ended by cancelling 
all past differences with Charnisay by marrying his widow. riil)bons' connection 
with him, however, did not turn to his advantage, for he suffered heavy pecuniary 
loss through lenduig La Tour money on his St. John property, which was finally 
confiscated. 

♦ William Paddy, one of the five merchants to whom the Kennebec trade was 
leased in 1649 for three years. Thwaite's Jesuits, Vol, 36, p. 241. 

f The methods of evangelization adopted by the Jesuits and by Eliot were 
so widely different that the discussion by the two men of the subject, so dear 
to the hearts of both, was probably not only interesting but somewhat keenly 
controversial. How the Jesuits sought to win the Indians to Christianity and civil 
ization is told in this history. On the other hand, the mere recital of the works 
translated by Eliot for the instruction of his converts expresses significantly the 
Puritan scheme for saving the souls of the red men, Baxter's " Call to the Un- 
converted " and Bayly's " Practice of Piety," translated into an Tiulian dialect, must 
have been as bewildeiing to the Wampanogas as bis Logick Primer " to the 
students at the Indian school at Natick. 



3o8 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



dently these much-maligned New Englanders were not such bigots 
after all I In Boston he was again made free of Major Gibbons' 
house. He seems to have impressed very deeply a Mr. Ebeny 
(Wm. Hibbins?), one of the magistrates, with the justice of his 
plea. The Governor and Council of Plymouth must have held out 
some hope of favoring the alliance, or Governor Dudley, on part- 
ing, would not have shaken his hand heartily and begged him to 
carry his greetings to the French Governor at Quebec, and assure 
him that ''let the two crowns wage what wars they will, we wish 
to be good friends and your humble servants." If Druillettes re- 
ports Dudley's farewell correctly, the Governor was not such a 
hater of popery as history depicts him. A vague promise would 
seem to have been understood as given for the passage of French 
troops, if necessary, through Boston in case of war; and both 
colonies are said by Druillettes at that time to have expressed 
themselves as favorable to an alliance. 

Of course, no decisive action could be taken except by the 
Council of the four Confederated States of New England, which 
confederacy was at that period a living organization; and such 
action was not then sought. Before leaving, Father Druillettes 
wrote to his Superior in France by a Boston packet, detailing 
minutely all proceedings, and asking for instructions for his guid- 
ance, and for that of the French Governor, to be sent by the earliest 
fishing fleet to Gaspe. He also wrote to Edward Winslow, the 
Massachusetts agent in London, at the suggestion of his brother 
John, urging him to use his influence with the colony for the pro- 
tection of the Montagnais Indians against the Iroquois. And 
knowing that the colonies of Connecticut and New Haven would 
have a voice in the final decision, he addressed a strong plea to 
John Winthrop at Pequott River, the Latin original of which has 
been found among the Winthrop papers.* His friend, Major 
Gibbons, however, had been gauging public opinion in Boston, 
and rather damped his hopes of acceptance of his proposal. The 
good Father had been long enough in the land to learn that the 
people held control. He calls the colony a Republic. On his re- 

* John Winthrop was the son of the famous John Winthrop, by whom the 
negotiations with Montmagny were opened in 1646 and 1647. 



PRIEST AND PURITAN. 



turn in Capt. Yan's bark the good Father meets others whose 
names have become household words. Driven by stress of 
weather into Morblety (Marblehead) he is there entertained by 
the Rev. Wilham Walter, who takes him over to Salem, and intro- 
duces him to Mr. Endicott. He found in Endicott a good French 
scholar, a sympathetic listener and a wise adviser. At Endicott's 
suggestion he wrote a memorial to be laid before the General 
Court of Boston. Endicott promised to present and advocate 
it. Like the apostles of old, the Jesuit missionary was 
travelling without purse or scrip, but Endicott supplied his 
needs, and he was not allowed to want for anything. In return he 
repaid his host by courtesy and good fellowship, and the benefit of 
his prayers ; and he was able to settle with Capt. Yan for his pas- 
sage by securing him permission to land a cargo of Indian corn 
in Gaspe Basin in the following Spring. Once on the Kennebec 
and among his own Indians he was again at home. On the 13th 
of April his friend, John Winslow, returned with the encouraging 
news that the disposition of the magistrates of both Boston and 
Plymouth was favorable ; that private letters had been sent to the 
Governors of Connecticut and New Haven, with a view of in- 
fluencing them to support the alliance, and that every effort was 
being made to prevent the sale of firearms to the Iroquois by the 
colonists of the Connecticut Valley. 

Appended to the Journal are "Reflections touching what can 
be expected on the part of New England against the Iroquois." 
Judging from the businesslike way and the calm indiffer- 
ence to humanitarian dictates with which two Indian tribes 
had already been wiped out by the New England colonists, 
the Father concludes that they would have little compunction 
as to the extermination of the Iroquois. He calculates 
that Boston alone can put into the field four thousand fight- 
men, and tliat, as tlic male population of the New Eng- 
land Confederation is 40,000, there will be no difficulty in 
raising a force sufficient for the purpose. He thinks they 
can count on the support of three of the four colonies, when the 
vote for the alliance comes up in the House. He feels very con- 



310 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



fident of the adherence of Plymouth, inasmuch as its revenue is 
drawn in great measure from a duty of one-sixth on all the peltries 
brought down the Kennebec by the Abenakis ; and as the Governor 
himself and four of the principal inhabitants are traders on the 
River, both public and private interests are enlisted in the 
protection of the Indians. The case is different with Connecti- 
cut and New Haven. Yet inasmuch as the Northern colonies 
helped Connecticut in the Pequod War, he thinks Connecticut will 
be willing to help them when their interests are concerned. As to 
Massachusetts, the bait to catch her will be the hope of trade with 
the St. Lawrence. Just then the wars in which Cromwell and the 
Commonwealth were engaged were likely to make the coasting 
trade with the Virginias and the West Indies very precarious. But 
Spain would not carry a naval war of reprisals into Northern 
latitudes ; therefore, if the Boston traders were assured of access 
to the Kennebec, their sympathies would be enlisted in the good 
cause. 

Father Druillettes did not go to Quebec to report in person 
till well on in June, but his written reports must have decided the 
Governor and the Superior of the Order to send him back with a 
lay delegate. The person selected was M. Godefroy, whom we 
have met as joint councillor with M. Giffard in the first council 
under the new constitution. We have no published journal of their 
faring; but Charlevoix publishes the letter of the Coun- 
cil of Quebec to the Commissioners of New England; and the 
minutes of Council of date June 20, 165 1, as well as the Governor's 
commission, have been preserved. Father Druillettes' title of 
priest in the commission is omitted — he is judiciously called a 
preacher of the Gospel. These documents recite the fact that the 
New England colonies in 1647 opened a correspondence with the 
authorities of New France looking to mutual trade relations under 
certain restrictions. The two agents are authorized to discuss 
and frame a treaty for reciprocal trade, subject to confirmation by 
a duly appointed ambassador from France. Both sides, however, 
must have perfectly understood that no treaty which would bene- 
fit New England would ever be made by the Court of Versailles. 
The proffer of a commercial treaty was simply a lure 



NEGOTIATIONS END IN FAILURE. 



to the New England Council to join in the war of extermination 
against the Iroquois. All we know is from the Jesuit's Journal, 
namely, that the delegates left with Noel and a party of Abenakis 
in seven or eight canoes on June 22nd, that letters were received 
on August 15th from Father Druillettes, dated from his 
camping ground on the Kennebec (Kousenck) where they had ar- 
rived on July 3rd, and whence they were to depart for Boston on 
the 13th. Their journey, made in summer weather, was less tedi- 
ous than had been the previous one of Father Druillettes ; for on 
the 31st of July Noel arrived in Quebec with letters from the dele- 
gates written in Boston. Godefroy followed on October 30th, 
but Father Druillettes remained with his flock until the spring fol- 
lowing, making the journey on snowshoes to Quebec, where he 
arrived on one of the last days of ^vlarch. 

The record of failure is told by Mr. Hutchinson in his "History 
of the Colony of IMassachusetts Bay," edition 1764, page 166, sub- 
stantially as set forth in the French documents. It is to the effect 
that the treaty of commerce, which would have been acceptable, 
was coupled with a condition precedent that Massachusetts and 
Plymouth should either join the French in an offensive alliance 
against the Iroquois, or aid them financially, or at least grant their 
troops free passage through colonial territory. But, as the Iro- 
quois had during the Pequod War been strictly neutral, and had 
never evinced an unfriendly spirit; and as the direct route from 
the St. Lawrence to the Mohawk country did not lead through 
either colony, the politic Puritans were not inclined to involve 
themselves in endless trouble, and accept in compensation only 
the uncertain advantages which might be derived from such a 
treaty of commerce as would be acceptable to the Court of Ver- 
sailles. Consequently the courts of the two colonics politely de- 
clined the overture. 

The Indian version of the failure given by Noel in a letter to 
Father Rutcux is laconic and to the point. "I was sent to the 
country of the Abnaquiois and of the English, who are their neigh- 
bors, to ask them for assistance against the Iroquois. I obeyed 
those who sent me, but my journey was in vain. The Englisliman 
replies not. He has no good thoughts for us. This grieves me 



312 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

much. We see ourselves dying and being exterminated every 
day." (Thwaite, Vol. 37, Page 77.) 

Thus ended the only serious attempt on the part of the Eng- 
lish and French colonies to harmonize their Indian policies and 
their trade interests. Had the French colonists been as free to 
regulate their commercial relations as New England claimed to 
be, the negotiations might have resulted more favorably ; for New 
York was still the Dutch colony of New Netherlands, and 
the Iroquois were really a threatening cloud hanging over the 
Connecticut Valley. But when the New Netherlands became 
New York, so that the Iroquois nations formed a buffer State 
between the English and French; and when the French began 
urging their Abenaki converts to take revenge on the English 
settlements for the depredations of the Iroquois on the St. Law- 
rence, all pretence of friendly feeling between French and English 
vanished. A century of hatred between these two groups of Chris- 
tian colonists followed. They lived on the fringe of a great con- 
tinent, which they should have joined in redeeming from barbar- 
ism ; but, instead of uniting to civilize its savage inhabitants and 
teach them the arts of peace, they wasted their own energies and 
lives in sanguinary conflict. 



CHAPTER XV. 



Gleanings from Father Jerome Lalemant's Contributions 
to the Journal des Jesuites, 1645 to 1650. 

From 1645 to 1670, with two short gaps, we have a delightful 
record of contemporary events in a Journal kept by the Superior 
of the Jesuit Missions, who was also rector of the College. The 
Journal, of course, deals chiefly with ecclesiastical details, but as 
such things were of much more general interest in those days 
than they are now, the narrative does not distort, to any serious 
extent, the routine of the every day thoughts and actions of 
either laymen or clerics. It gives us glimpses of a native 
courtesy which smoothed the ruggedness of existence, and 
softened the asperities which it could not wholly banish from 
the little town. To laymen it is of interest to be admitted to some of 
the secrets and special interests of clerical life. Of these the Jour- 
nal reveals not a few — some trivial, some of greater importance. It 
is not a matter of great moment to know how many candles were 
lighted during the saint; nor what attitude the Governor assumed 
in and out of church ; but it is curious to note the very minute 
particularity with which the details of religious functions were ar- 
ranged, and how, nevertheless, occasional errors occurred in the 
conduct of the services through ignorance, or neglect of careful 
rehearsal, and how blunders were made which introduced confu- 
sion into the most accurately planned processions. Such trifles are 
told side by side with events of importance, and all with such 
charming frankness and naturalness, that it is difficult to conceive 
that the same men wrote the Journal who indited from year to year 
the Relations with their everlasting stories about the angelic 
sweetness of the Indian converts ; the holy raptures of some of the 
civil magnates of the colony ; and the seraphic perfection of life 
and soul of certain members of the religious communities with 
whom the Fathers of the Society of Jesus were not in conflict. 



314 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



These yearly reports aim too evidently at effect on the minds of 
the readers in France to whom they were addressed, and 
like all self-conscious literary efforts, are stiff and stilted, and 
lack the clear and vibrant ring of sincerity. The entries in the 
Journal, on the contrary, prove that the rigid discipline which the 
novice of the Society of Jesus underwent did not eradicate his in- 
dividuality.* 

In regard to the Jesuits generally, it may be said that the in- 
timate contact with the world and its secular affairs, which 
the duties of many of them involved, counteracted the narrowing 
effect of their religious education, and created that extraordinarily 

* Rochemonteix, the historian of the Jesuits in New France (Vol. I-15), 
frankly admits that " the Relations, as published, do not give an altogether true 
portrait of the features of New France. They show only the fairest and most con- 
solatory side of society. The other is intentionally thrown into the shade, or, to 
speak more correctly, passed over in silence." It is history — but history only 
half told. The same high authority ascribes the origin of the Relations to the 
instructions given by St. Francis Xavier to the missionaries, Pere Juan de Beira 
and Pere Berzee, to report to headquarters for publication such news as 
should bear witness to the Society's zeal and to the success which divine grace 
deigns to grant to its humble officers. He quotes also the significant caution given : 
" Nothing must appear which could give just offence to anyone; nothing but what 
shall at once inspire the reader with thoughts of God, His glory and the advance- 
ment of his service." The advice was good, and the Relations written by the mis- 
sionaries in both hemispheres in accordance with this advice constitute memorable 
and interesting documents. Nevertheless, as the limitations laid down were 
strictly observed, the scope of the letters as historical records is correspondingly, 
restricted, and their value proportionately reduced. They were intended to be, 
and were, arguments in glorification of the Society rather than faithful chronicles 
of contemporary events. Father Le Jeune, in 1635, warns his readers that he 
does not pretend to describe all that happens in Canada, but only such events as 
redound to the advance of the faith and the glory of God. 

In addition to the Relations, and the Lettres Edifiantes, there were sent to 
their superiors by the members of the Society private, confidential letters, with 
descriptions and criticisms of events and public personages, which gave the heads 
of the Order more perfect knowledge of what was transpiring than even the 
Ministers of State could obtain from their own officials. It would have been as 
unwise and improper to publish these as it would be for any Government to print 
the confidential reports of their diplomatic agents. 

Rochemonteix attributes the cessation, in 1673, of the publication of the Rela- 
tions to the brief of Pope Clement X. forbidding the publication of missionary 
records, owing to the scandal among the religious orders growing out of the dis- 
cussion of the Chinese Rites (that is, the recognition by the Jesuit missionaries of 
certain Chinese customs and beliefs as innocent, because not contrary to the 
essential doctrines of Christ). And thus it came about, among other misfortunes, 
that the narrative of the explorations, for example, of Father Marquette, which 
passed through the hands of Father d'Ablon, Superior of the Order in Canada, 
to the General of the Order in Rome, and the Provincial in France, was buried in 
oblivion. 



MILITARY LAXITY. 



composite character which has made the Jesuit priest the idol of 
some and the abomination of others — tlie astutest of pohticians 
and the most devout of missionaries, with a tenacity of purpose 
and a bhndness of submission to the orders of his superiors 
which have caused him to be profoundly dreaded and suspected as 
a political agent. 

Father Lalemant made the first entry in the first volume of 
the Journal in August, 1645 • ^^st entry in the third volume 
•was made in 1775. Unfortunately the first volume alone is known 
to have survived. The three existed when the order was dissolved, 
and were still in the Jesuit Library when Father Cazot died in 
1800. Their value was at once appreciated, for William Smith, in 
his History of Canada, published in the year 181 5, referring to cer- 
tain events that occurred in 1710, quotes from the third volume of 
the Journal. (See Smith, Vol. I, page 170.) The now surviving 
portion was found in ■Mr. Cochran's office at Quebec in 181 5, and 
the missing volumes may peradventure yet be unearthed from 
some obscure hiding place. (See Introduction to Laverdiere & 
Casgrain's edition.) 

The Journal opens with some severe comments by Father Lal- 
emant on the laxity of the military authorities. He had come 
down from the Huron country to assume the duties of Superior 
and take charge of the college, which was nearing completion. The 
welcome news greeted him that the company had abandoned its 
exclusive privileges, and that all the beaver skins which hisHurons 
had brought down would go to the inhabitants. As he passed the 
mouth of the Richelieu he found only ten soldiers in a neglected 
fort; de Sennetaire, the commandant, as well as Mons. Champ- 
flour, the commandant of Three Rivers, being on leave of 
absence in France. The reverend Father reflects that the St. Law- 
rence — not the Seine — was the proper place for the military 
gTKirdians of the Canadian frontier. 

However lax the military precautions and discipline may 
have been, the Father Superior found his own forces at 
their posts: four priests, with three servants, at Three 
Rivers; three priests, a brother and four men at Sillery; 
three priests, three brothers, and four serving men at Que- 



3l6 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

bee. There were in addition at Quebec Father Quentin, 
the Procureur, who traveled annually to and fro between 
France and Quebec, and his assistant, Brother Liegeois. The 
serving men, who had assumed religious obligations to labor "for 
life" for the Order, received lOO livres a year. It was a mag- 
nificent organization, economically conducted. Other servants, 
however, were employed, who came under no perpetual obliga- 
tions; for one of Father Lalemant's first acts was to employ a 
sailor — one Chretiennaut — as cook and man of all work, for the 
Three Rivers mission, at 30 ecus per year. He had come out in 
Repentigny's fleet, and turned out to be a very doubtful character. 
He had no "discharge," as he had left his ship because discontent- 
ed. But he was not a deserter, for he entered the Jesuits' service 
six days before Repentigny's five ships sailed with the first cargoes, 
under the new arrangement, of 20,000 beaver skins consigned by 
the inhabitants, and 2,000 consigned by the company, worth one 
pistole, or 10 to 11 francs the pound. Poor Chretiennaut evidently 
found the rule of the Fathers too straightlaced, for he left their 
service for that of the commandant of the Fort at Three Rivers. 
His habits, however, were too lax to be overlooked even by the 
military, for we last hear of him as "sur le chevalet ou il se rompit" 
— astride the wooden horse, on which he ruptured himself. 

The fathers were still temporary occupants of part of the Com- 
pany's quarters, where they had been offered accommodations on 
the destruction of their own home and Champlain's chapel by fire 
in 1640. But the conveniences, even if given gratuitously, were 
not lavish, for Father Lalemant had to obtain permission to build 
an oven. Heretofore, he says, bread made of imported flour had 
been supplied at 15 sols by the company's store; but now that they 
had an oven of their own, better and cheaper bread could be made 
from native wheat. But clothes were scarcer than bread, for the 
seven loaves which the Fathers distributed on the occasion of the 
jubilee were exchanged by their recipients at the company store 
for boots and linen. There seem to have been many indigent 
French, for, of the Governor's gift of two pistoles, one was for 
the poor among his own countrymen, the other for the Sillery 
Indians. In addition the Lieutenant Governor was authorized to 



INTEREST IN RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES. 



distribute 200 francs' worth of food and clothing at the discretion 
of the Jesuit Fathers. Mention is made this year of the initiation 
of a local industry which has survived to this day — the sale of fire- 
wood. The price paid would seem not to have been excessive. If 
£ut from land not owned by the wood chopper, it was delivered 
for 30 sols the cord ; but at 2 livres, or 10 sols more, if from the 
seller's land. The difference, 10 sols the cord, was therefore the 
value of the wood. To heat their houses at Notre Dame des Anges, 
and their rooms in the Company's quarters, the Jesuits burnt two 
sleigh loads a day. 

There was not only official but social intercourse among the 
religious communities. On December 5th the Father received an 
invitation to dine at the Ursuline convent, but was obliged to re- 
fuse, as it was the first Sunday in Advent, and he had to preach at 
the Hospital. 

Cold and hunger did not quench religious enthusiasm, 
which the frequent recurrence of church festivals maintained at a 
high temperature. Midnight mass at Christmas was celebrated 
with a musical service. Mons. de la Ferte sang bass, Martin 
played the violin, and a nameless musician made discord with a 
German flute, though in the rehearsal he had succeeded in keeping 
time and tune. Another contre-temps was the failure of the sac- 
ristan to give the necessary signal for the salvo of artillery at the 
moment of the elevation. To add to their worry, the celebration 
nearly ended in a catastrophe. To heat the chapel, which was 
probably in the second story of the Company's house, two large 
boilers had been filled with charcoal, and should have been re- 
moved immediately after the ceremony. But in the excitement 
this precaution was neglected and tlic floor beneath them became 
ignited. The kitchen was beneath the chapel, and the cook, up 
betimes, busy with his Christmas functions, discovered the fire 
and succeeded in extinguishing^ it. 

The Jubilee fetes lasted till December 31st — the most impres- 
sive incident being the procession of more than 100 Indians from 
Sillery to perform their devotions at the Parish Church. But it 
was too much to expect that the festivities should end without 
some friction. Midnight mass, then as now, offered temptations to 



3l8 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

the sinner as well as consolation to the saints. Two Frenchmen, 
up too late, were arrested for drunkenness. As the Indians drew 
invidious comparisons between the severity with which they were 
punished and the light chastisement inflicted on the French for 
like offences, the Governor condemned the culprits to be exposed 
sur le chevalet — on the wooden horse, in a bitter northeast wind. 
How they must have enjoyed a hot drink afterward! and doubt- 
less the drink was forthcoming, for some at least of their fellow 
townsmen must have been boiling over with sympathetic indig- 
nation and ready to treat them. 

Then there was a controversy as to procedure in the distribu- 
tion of the pain be'nit, which had always been a bone of contention. 
The Governor had received the chanteau, or last and smallest cake, 
which entitled him to supply it the following Sunday. The amount 
provided was in excess of the distribution, and it was decided that 
the two Marguillers — church wardens — who were the Seigneur 
Giifard and the new company's chief clerk, des Chastelets — should 
be the next recipients, and that what remained should be given to 
the people in the order of their houses from the head of the Cote 
St. Genevieve, which led down to the valley of the St. Charles. 

A still more delicate question had to be settled by Father Lale- 
mant before the year closed. Father Vimont, his predecessor, had 
given the sisters of the Ursulines and of the Hotel Dieu a lease for 
six years, without rent, of the rich bottom lands on the Beauport 
Flats, between the Cabanne aux Topiers River and Giffard's 
seignory. Though the religious ladies were deserving of all con- 
sideration, this was a purely business transaction, and as a busi- 
ness man he was not inclined to confirm, though he did not dis- 
allow, so one-sided a bargain without due deliberation. In the first 
place, when Father Vimont gave the lease, though still filling the 
office of Superior, he had been notified that his successor had been 
appointed ; secondly, the term of the lease was too long, and third- 
ly, some consideration should in fairness be paid. The negotiations 
ended in an exchange : only on consideration of receiving an equi- 
valent, would the good ladies consent to abandon their leases. 

1646. 

Old France was revived in New France by that cordial inter- 



NEW YEAR VISITS AND GIFTS. 



change of visits and presents at New Year's which unfortunately 
is dying out, with many another good old custom. Father Lalemant 
forgot no one on the Jour de I'An. On January ist the soldiers 
greeted the Governor by presenting arms, while the inhabitants in 
a body saluted him. His Excellency then at 7 a. m., though it was 
still dark, crossed the Place d'Armes, to salute, collectively and in- 
dividually, the good Fathers. After grand mass the Superior re- 
turned the visit unannounced, as it was a day of general salutation. 
And the ladies of both communities sent their greetings to the 
priests by letters, that of the Ursulines accompanied by a present 
of candles, chaplets, a crucifix, and two big pigeon pies. In re- 
turn Father Lalemant sent them enamelled images of St. Ignatius 
and St. Francis Xavier. To the church wardens the father gave 
books of devotion, relics and medals. Humbler friends were not 
forgotten. The washerwoman of the church received a crucifix. 
Alme. Martin was rejoiced by receiving four handkerchiefs, and 
her husband perhaps better pleased by a reminder in the shape of 
a bottle of brandy, for the Church, however opposed to excess, did 
not forbid good cheer. Robert Hache, one of the domestics ad 
vitam, was so pleased with the gift of two handkerchiefs that he 
asked for and received two more. The Superior then started on 
a round of visits, ending up with the ladies of the Ursulines and 
Madame flc la Pcltrie, whose presents he had forgotten to mention. 
To each of his fellow priests and the brothers he distributed some- 
thing from his own little stock of treasures, nor did he forget 
those at Sillery. 

These kindly remembrances did not cease on the first day of 
the month, for the Governor on the 3r(l sent the good Fatlicrs 
three capons and ten pigeons, and subsequently their larder was 
replenished by a cake and a well-cooked dinner from the I Intel 
Dieu, and Mons. Giffard provided a bottle of hypocras, with which 
to wash down the good things. And when Ics jours gras came 
round, the ladies of the Ursuline and the Hotel Dieu vied with one 
another in fortifying the Fathers for the fast which was impend- 
ing, the severity of which, however, was somewhnt mitigated bv 
the thoughtfulness of the Governor, who never forgot to send 



320 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



them fresh fish twice a week during Lent. They returned the 
compHment with two jars of oHves. 

The pain benit became again a matter of controversy. Madame 
Marsolet, who was to make it for the Sunday before Septuagesima, 
presented it on napkins, and surmounted it with a cross of gauze. 
She wished in addition to decorate it with candles, but the Fathers 
thought this departure from simplicity smacked of vanity and 
ostentation, and might not only excite jealousy, but possibly give 
offence to His Excellency, who, when he provided the pain btnit^ 
had not indulged in such extravagances. For these excellent rea- 
sons all the accessories were removed. 

Questions of precedence were also rife, for on Candlemas Day 
the Fathers, wishing to show no preference, after sending a wax 
candle to the Governor, cut up their stock into 115 bits, and distrib- 
uted them, without discrimination, together with the pain benit. 
Though there was not enough to go round, no occasion was given 
for jealousy. 

On March i6th the Chapel of the Hotel Dieu was dedicated. 
On April 17th the river was free from ice, and shortly afterward 
the Father Superior ascended it to attend to his ecclesiastical duties 
at Three Rivers. On his return he notes the following catalogue 
of incidents, which all help to illustrate the lights and shadows of 
the picturesque life of the mixed population of zealous churchmen, 
reckless adventurers, and Indian savages. 

Item. — The death of good Father Masse, and his burial at the 
scene of his labors at Sillery, where his bones repose to this day.* 

Item. — A quarrel between an Iroquois and an Abenaki, which 
resulted in the Iroquois transfixing with a sword a squaw instead 
of his intended victim. The quarrel was accommodated in Indian 
fashion by the parents of the unfortunate woman. 

Item. — A duel with swords between two servants of the Ur- 
sulines ; results not stated. 

Item. — Another duel between two soldiers at Three Rivers, 
which resulted in the wounding of La Groie and the imprisonment 

* The foundations of the old Chapel of Sillery can be traced near a substan- 
tial stone house, on the beach, which was probably attached to the mission. 



A NOTABLE PROCESSION. 



321 



of his antagonist, La Fontaine, who was adjudged to be in the 
wrong on the testimony of an Indian. DueUing seems to have 
been a common practice, even with the rank and file of society ; and 
it is noteworthy that an Indian's testimony was received as good, 
even against a Frenchman. 

Item. — A fire destroyed Guillaume Bance's house, and all he 
had, but his neighbors came so liberally to his assistance that he 
was set firmly on his feet again. The Fathers gave permission to 
work on St. Barnabe's day to all who would help Bance to rebuild, 
and fifteen responded to the call. 

Ite7n. — The theft from a poor man's chest of all he had in the 
world, to the value of twenty-five ecus. It was the first instance 
of petty thieving in the colony, and the Father deplored and re- 
buked it from the pulpit. 

Item. — A certain Thomas, of Huguenot proclivities, abjured 
his errors and made profession of faith; and a Huron convert was 
baptized in the Ursuline chapel. 

Item. — Brother Ambrose was told off from May 1st to 20th to 
make malt and brew beer for the House of Notre Dame de,s 
Anges ; and to Brother Feaute and Robert Hache was assigned 
the pleasant duty of fishing on May 15th, but it was June nth be- 
fore the first salmon was caught. 

The Fete Dieu was this year celebrated with more than 
usual devotion, and the account of the procession is given with 
much detail. The canopy was carried by M. Tronquet, nominated 
by the Governor, the two church wardens, M. Giffard and Chas- 
telets, and an Indian convert, Noel Ncgabamat. Conspicuous 
figures were six French angels and two little Indians in native 
costume, carrying corporal cases. The torch bearers were drawn 
from the ranks of the six principal trades of the town — carpenters, 
masons, sailors, toolmakers, brewers and bakers. Tlic farmers 
seem not to have been represented. The procession started, to the 
ringing of bells, from tlie temporary Parish Church in the Com- 
pany's offices, situated somcwlicre to the east or west of Garden 
street, probably within the enclosure of the present English Ca- 
thedral. It crossed the open space and rested near ''The Tree," 



322 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



where the host was saluted by a salvo of artillery.* Thence 
the procession moved to the Hotel Dieu^ the Hospitalieres 
claiming a certain precedence over the Ursiilines, as 
their Hospital building was by two whole years of greater 
age than the convent. It was saluted by a volley of mus- 
ketry, as it passed behind the house of M. Couillard, which 
was probably near the present seminary gate. It may then have 
wended its way across Hope Hill, and through the Hospital's own 
grounds, which at that time covered nearly all the portion of the 
present town comprised within Hope, Fabrique and Palace 
streets, to its recently consecrated chapel. In returning, it rested at 
Mons. Couillard's altar, where it was saluted by musketry. In re- 
tracing its course to the Parish Church, it was again saluted by the 
cannon of the Fort ; then it passed to the Ursuline Convent under 
an arch of a bridge, which is more than once mentioned as a 
feature of the Company's house. It was probably a covered way 
between two buildings, as we learn that the Jesuits, before trying 
to warm their chapel for Christmas midnight mass, experimented 
with braziers or stoves on this bridge. In 1640 the Governor sent 
a company of soldiers to salute the Fathers by a discharge of their 
arquebuses at the end of the bridge, which may then have only 
been in process of construction. 

The Jesuit estates meanwhile grew and were judiciously cared 
for and cultivated, although the price of labor was high, that is to 
say, from thirty to thirty-five sols a day and board, as we gather 
from an entry in June. Father Lalemant was employing Etienne 
Bongoust as a millwright to assist in building a new mill, after 
clearing ofif what wood remained on their cow pasture on the 
Pointe aux Lievres, the spit of land on which the Marine Hos- 
pital now stands. Where to erect the new mill was a mooted 
question, which had to be decided soon, as the old mill at the 
mission was falling to pieces. The society decided on exchang- 

* " The Tree" was probably that magnificent elm which stood in the north- 
east corner of the Cathedral close, till about 1849, when it was blown down dur- 
ing a violent storm. Tradition said that under it Jacques Cartier held council 
with the Indians. A section of it was deposited in the museum of the Literary 
and Historical Society, but it was burned, with most of the Society's collection, in 
the Parliament Building in 1854. 



JESUIT TITLES TO LAND. 



ing six acres which they owned in the city for eighteen lying be- 
tween the Vaclierie (cow pasture) and the foot of Cote St. 
Genevieve, and somewhere on the latter property the new 
mill was built. Lut Moiuir.agriy would cede the land only en 
roture. This led the Superior to examine the titles under which 
the several concessions made to the society were held, and, to use 
his own words : "i found that those of our six hundred arpents of 
land at Three Rivers, granted in 1634, conferred a perfect title up- 
on us without any charge, in full property and lordship, ut rex 
concesserat concedentihiis. As regards the letters patent for the 
lands of Notre Dame des Anges, Beauport, and la Vacherie, 
dated 1637, I found no charge upon such concessions beyond the 
saying of a mass every year — with no other dues — and the ac- 
knowledgment of concession every twenty years ; but there is no 
mention of any seignorial right. As for the titles to those of Isle 
aux Ruaux, they are also very good, and similar to that of Three 
Rivers. As for the Isle de Jesus, there is no deed on parchment ; 
there is merely an extract from the proceedings of the General 
Assembly and a certificate of taking possession by Monsieur the 
Governor, which mentions a mandate he had received, in virtue 
whereof he so put us in possession, without mention of any 
condition. 

"Those which were conceded to Monsieur Gififard, des Chaste- 
lets, etc., confer more seignorial rights, but are also subject to 
many more charges. 

"The most disadvantageous are those of Sillery, which, being 
ours only by a transfer made by Monsieur Gant. are also subject to 
all the charges borne by him, and among others a rent of a denier 
an arpent. 

"About this time, the Hospital nuns having — in consequence of 
what had been procured for them at the Long Point and at the Isle 
of Orleans — given up the document signed by Father Vimont, by 
which they had been granted some meadows on our lands for six 
years, Father Vimont notified the Ursulines that they would have 
to do the same. They found it hard to comply, and requested that, 
in case that were done — to wit. taking our meadows from them, in 
order to lease them — they should be preferred to others. The 



324 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

conclusion was that, until they had been assured of what had been 
assigned to them at Long Point and on the Island of Orleans, we 
should reserve for them fifteen or sixteen arpents of land — which 
we should dispose of, when they should have received the above 
assurance — and should dispose of the others, there being still fif- 
teen or sixteen arpents more to be granted. In all, from the 
(river) Cabanne-aux-Topiers to Monsieur Giffard's river, there 
are forty-seven arpents ; seventeen are to be reserved for the farm 
at Beauport, and the remainder granted as above." 

The social event of the summer was the marriage of Mont- 
pellier, who was both a soldier and a cobbler, to the daughter of 
Sevestre. At the dance a kind of ballet was performed by five of 
his comrades, but the Fathers expressed their disapproval. The 
salmon fishing was good that summer. A present of fish came 
from Tadousac, and the Governor's and their own catch numbered 
200 up to the end of July. 

On the fete day of St. Ignatius, the Governor wished to fire a 
salute on the celebration of the ordinaire, but as it was only a fete 
de devotion^ and not a fete d' obligation, and as the spring fleet had 
not arrived, though July was well nigh ended, the Fathers, with 
thoughtful consideration, declined His Excellency's offer, lest the 
salute should be supposed to announce the sighting of the fleet. 
The citizens had that summer to wait long for the ships, as the first 
one did not cast anchor till the 20th September, and the last on the 
14th of October. 

The Superior made his annual journey to Three Rivers in Au- 
gust, taking with him, among others, a mason, at 100 livres of 
wages a year. There he met Gilles Bacon, hurrying down to lay 
before the Governor the news of the discovery of gold and copper, 
and to confirm his story with specimens — the second representa- 
tive of the great army of prospectors and promoters ; Jacques Car- 
tier, with his flakes of mica and his quartz crystals, having been 
the first. 

This was the second year of the habitants' compromise with the 
Company of the One Hundred Associates. The people's company 
did a larger business than in the previous year, shipping 160 poin- 
90ns of beaver skins of 200 livres each, or 32,000 pounds, as 



RENEWAL OF DISCONTENT. 



against 19,600 in 1645 — the value being the same each year, 10 
francs the Hvre. 

The returning fleet had its full complement of passengers. The 
management of the popular company, notwithstanding that the 
shipment of furs so greatly exceeded that of the previous year, had 
led to very general discontent. And M. des Chastelets, the manag- 
er, came in for his full share of abuse. The Fathers had thought 
that the Governor's summary punishment of those who started the 
agitation in the previous January had completely allayed it, though 
he had done nothing towards removing the alleged grievances. 
They and he soon discovered their mistake, for now nearly every 
man of influence was bound for France to press a claim or lodge a 
complaint. Possibly the term fripons — rogues — which the Father 
applies to several of the most respectable of the grumblers, may 
have been deserved ; but whether it was or not, it shows that 
feeling was running high in the colony. 

The eel fishery had been prosperous — the catch amounting to 
40,000, which sold at one-half an ecu the hundred. Cord wood 
•was selling at 100 sols, more than twice the price of 1645, so 
that few could afford to buy a whole cord at a time; and 
the Father complains that the half-cord really did not measure 
more than three feet (instead of four), and that the wood 
was bad at that. It is evident that every one was hard up 
and discontented, and inclined to put the worst construction on 
his neighbor's conduct, and that the Fathers themselves had not 
escaped the epidemic of captiousness. 

The last day of the year was celebrated by a comedy played at 
the company's store in the presence of the Governor, and attended 
by several of the Fathers and some of the Indians ; but the priests 
were not willing to sanction by their presence the Mardi Gras 
dance. Marrying and giving in marriage went on as usual, and 
there were some embarrassing cases of conscience and breaches of 
promise. One was that of an Indian girl, who had been educated 
by the Ursulines. She had been wooed by a French lad, and 
had promised to marry him, l)ut wlien the enga.c^cnicnt had to be 
fulfilled, she refused him in favor of a man of her own race. 



326 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



1647. 

It was a mild winter and spring set in early. Fires were sel- 
dom needed in the chapel during mass, and the wine froze only 
once in the chalice. But it was an anxious winter. Small bands 
of Iroquois hovered around, picking off Algonquin hunters who 
separated from their party ; but the Fathers knew nothing of the 
fate of their colleague. Father Jogues, of whose cruel martyrdom 
they only heard on June the 5th. They were busy getting out, and 
hauling to its site, the lumber for their new college, for the 
foundation of which they began blasting before the frost was out 
of the ground. 

An entry in the Journal of June, 1647, informs us that the ships 
brought out the first horse imported into the country, as a present 
from the people to their Governor.* They also brought news of the 
constitution under which the three towns of Montreal, Quebec and 
Three Rivers might appoint syndics, who should represent them in 
Council. The people were in greater haste to avail themselves of 
their freshly-acquired privileges than the Governor was to give his 
consent — notwithstanding the present of the horse. He had not 
been officially notified. 

Considering the progress of the colony and the vocal resources 
at the command of the Cliurch, the Jesuits decided to say high 
mass with proper accompaniments, instead of performing the holy 
office in the irregular way heretofore of necessity followed, which 
shocked new comers from Old France. 

An entry in the same month of June tells of the seizure of 260 
lbs. of beaver skins in the rooms of the Chaplain of the Ursulines. 
This evidently raised the question of their own right to trade, and 
of that of their parishioners at Sillery, which had become a trading 
post of some importance. They decided that it was not becoming 
that they should themselves engage in trade, but that the inhabi- 
tants of Sillery, in virtue of their natural rights, and the King's 
permission, might, if the store refused to pay a reasonable price 
for their peltries, trade on their own account. 

* In June of the year previous the Governor, when negotiating with the 
Jesuit Fathers about the exchange of the eighteen acres in the St. Charles Valley 
for the six acres in the town, went to confer with the Brothers Liegeois — sur sa 
monture. What did he ride ? 



JOTTINGS FROM THE JOURNAL. 



On the 28th July the old barn was set on fire by a careless 
smoker, and one of their servants was burned to death. As he 
was a confirmed drunkard and died without any signs of re- 
pentance, they buried him in unconsecrated ground. 

In August came the official authority to form a colonial council, 
on which the Jesuits were to be represented by their Superior. 
Four of the Fathers held a deliberation as to whether it would be 
wise to accept the post and its responsibilities. The decision was 
in the affirmative. 

It was a dull season, and trade was bad, as the Hurons did not 
venture to descend the Ottawa. 

1648. 

In February Father de Quen made a missionary journey along 
the Beauport and Beaupre beach to Cap Tourmente, returning by 
the Island of Orleans. He puts the population at 200, and the 
number of communicants at 140. There were evidently fewer 
families in proportion to bachelors than at a later period. And how 
rural was still the state of the city is indicated by the entry relat- 
ing to the death and burial of Mme. Drouin in the same month of 
February. The road was so narrow that they could not convey the 
body to the cemetery on a sleigh — it had to be carried by two men. 

There was the usual interchange of good things at Mardi Gras. 
Among the delicacies sent to the Fathers by the Governor was a 
quarter of moose meat. It is incidentally mentioned that four 
moose were killed, whence we may infer that they were not then 
very much more numerous than at present. 

It was a busy winter, and there nuist have been work for all. 
Ten or twelve men were in the woods getting out lumber for the 
Jesuit College. A wing was being added to the Fort, and a parish 
church was under erection. Perhaps it was the abundance of 
work and money which accounted for four unfortunates being 
condemned to ride the wooden horse for drunkenness. 

If the roads were narrow in winter, they were so muddy when 
the snow was melting that it was feared that the procession on 
the feast of St. Mark, April 25th. would have to be omitted. 
Finally it was deemed better to plod through the mud than not to 
honor the saint. 



328 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



On the feast of St. Michael, May 7th, the Fathers celebrated 
vespers at their house of Notre Dame des Anges, and afterwards 
served a supper, observing most punctiliously the gradations of 
rank of their guests. The Governor and les plus honnetes gens 
were regaled in the refectory. The musicians, who had assisted 
in the chapel, were served in the petite salle. For the sailors 
tables were set in the carpenter's shop, and the rest, including the 
soldiers, were accommodated in the large room. The Governor 
went to the service and the entertainment by boat, but, the tide 
having run down, he returned on foot. What had become of the 
horse ? 

On Rogation Sunday the procession was formed after vespers. 
It encircled the fields on Cape Diamond, and returned by the 
Grande Allee. As this was the festival when prayers are offered 
for a good harvest, and the bounds of the parish are beaten, or 
defined by the procession, we may assume that most of the houses 
were built on the slope above the present St. Louis Street, and 
that the ground now occupied by the Glacis — not then, of course, 
graded as at present — was cleared and under cultivation. 

On St. John the Baptist's day the old custom of lighting the 
bonfire was practiced by Governor Montmagny, who always sent 
for the Fathers to assist in the ceremony. It was a curious custom, 
one the traces of which are very widespread, and still perpetuated 
in Rome — the ancient Festival of Ceres. Dancing and merrymak- 
ing are indulged in, and fires are lighted to drive away evil spirits 
bent on destroying the harvest, then ripe and ready for reaping in 
Italy, though not in Canada. A couple of years later the Father 
Superior seems to have had some misgivings as to the wisdom of 
countenancing and perpetuating the custom. The reason given 
for not thinking it proper to encourage the custom is that Mont- 
magny did not practice it — a strange lapse of memory, probably, 
on Father Ragueneau's part, who was joint author of the Journal 
that year with Father Lalemant. 

Though the upper lake trade was cut of¥, Tadousac did a thriv- 
ing business of over 224,000 pounds of beaver skins. 

That enterprising citizen, M. Abraham Martin, inaugurated 
this summer seal fishing, and his first venture was successful, for 



AN EXECUTION FOR THEFT. 



he and his two nephews killed on Isle Rouge forty-two seals, from 
which they extracted six barrels of oil. Ptarmigan this year flocked 
from the north in such numbers — a phenomenon seen occasionally 
in our own times — that more than 1,200 were killed. 

Gov. Montmagny disappears and d'Aillebout takes his place. 
As the full fa-ctum of the inaugural ceremonies was embodied 
in a separate document by Father Lalemant, and not entered in 
the Journal, we are unfortunately deprived of it. 

1649. 

In January and February the first executions at the hands of 
the public hangman took place. The first victim was a girl (une 
creature) of sixteen, convicted of theft. The crime of the other 
is not named. It was only in the previous September that the 
sentence of a drummer, convicted of a heinous crime and con- 
demned to death, was commuted on condition of his becoming the 
public executioner. The hangman having been secured, work was 
soon found for him ! 

During Holy Week ''the Ursuline nuns committed the aston- 
ishing mistake of not keeping three triangular candlesticks on the 
altar during the tenebrae of the third day, nor any candles except 
two white ones lighted during the first and second days." 

As soon as the ice broke up, boats were sent to Three Rivers 
and Montreal for tidings. They returned with reports of famine 
everywhere, to relieve which forty barrels of wheat, peas and malt- 
grist were with all haste sent to the sufferers. 

While the colonists were straining every nerve to succor their 
countrymen and savage allies, a band of Abenakis, with letters 
from New England, came up the river also soliciting relief ; but 
they received the cold shoulder. Troubles were accumulating fast, 
for during the same months came the terrible news of the Huron 
massacres and the martyrdom of their confreres on the Georgian 
Bay. Then in August the Fathers licard of the wreck of a new 
ship on her voyage from France, with 4,000 livres worth of their 
property — so badly needed. 

In September some Frenchmen eluded the Iroquois, and ar- 
rived from the Huron country with 5,000 pounds of-l)caver skins, 
which, as they sold for 5 fr. 5 sols the pound, were worth 26,000 



330 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



livres; with them were two soldiers who brought down 747 
pounds additional, which sold for 4 francs the pound. These 
independent traders evidently did better than the Company, 
whose total shipments of peltries amounted to only 100 poingons 
— worth 100,000 francs. 

The following notes conclude the Journal for that year. A fee 
of 20 sols was exacted in addition to the cost of passage to France, 
to be paid to the Governor's secretary ; he and other officials also 
got a share of the fines imposed. 

Work was commenced on the defenses of Sillery at the pubHc 
expense." As events proved, it was labor and money thrown away. 

The walls of the Jesuit College were raised, and the roof 
thrown over it, but the interior was not completed. There were 
now so many Jesuit priests that one could be spared to say mass 
at Beauport every Sunday and feast day. 

1650. 

In April there was a council of the Jesuit Fathers to decide two 
important questions : 

I. — Whether a colony of Hurons should be established on 
their Beauport lands. The first massacre of that unfortunate race 
on the Georgian Bay, whither they had fled from their old home 
on the St. Lawrence, had filled the colony with horror and their 
ardent friends, the missionaries, with fearful forebodings. The 
removal of the remnant of the race, which was only carried into 
efifect after the second massacre, was evidently even then sug- 
gested to the minds of their Jesuit protectors as an approaching 
necessity, for they decided to permit certain selected families to 
settle on their lands at Beauport, and appropriated 500 ecus an- 
nually towards their support. Before this merciful purpose could 
be carried out, all that had not been destroyed or dispersed of the 
once powerful nation of 20,000 Hurons, had to be provided for 
without discrimination on the Island of Orleans. It is interesting 
to compare the willingness with which the good Fathers proposed 
to receive on their lands so many impecunious Indian tenants, 
with their reluctance to permit the two communities of nuns to 
occupy a strip of the same tract. The former transaction was in 
their eyes a work of religious charity — the latter a matter of 



TORTURE OF AN INDIAN CAPTIVE. 



business with business women, whose salvation was happily not in 
question. They were careful, shrewd men of affairs themselves, 
and the heads of the convents and their advisers have seldom been 
lacking in worldly wisdom. 

11. — The second subject of debate was settled in a manner 
equally creditable to their public spirit. In the previous year 
2,000 livres had been appropriated, but the sum had not yet been 
paid out of the public purse, towards the erection of their house 
and college at Three Rivers. But, as they had received 6,000 
livres from the public as a contribution towards their college in 
Quebec, they decided that it would be demanding too much to 
exact the payment of the other donation. 

Barbarous associations continued to produce their unhappy ef- 
fects, as we see by the willingness of the French authorities to 
turn over an Indian captive to his tormentors, as told in the Jour- 
nal of June 15th. On the evening of that day a Huron arrived, 
named Skandahietse, who pretended to have been sent as an am- 
bassador by the Iroquois, and to have hidden by the way two 
wampum belts, which he was bearing as a pledge of peace, fearing 
lest they should fall into the hands of the Algonquins. When 
cross-questioned he contradicted himself so glaringly that he was 
seized, tried as a spy, and condemned to death. But, before he 
was turned over to his Indian enemies, he was baptized by the 
name of Louis. 

The Christmas midnight mass was celebrated in the new 
parish church, on the site of the present Basilica. The edifice had 
been for three years under construction, and was not finished and 
consecrated till 1657. 

The summer had been a very sad one. Entry after entry in the 
Journal records the death of an Indian convert, or of a country- 
man, at the hands of the Iroquois fiends. It must therefore have 
been with relief, yet with terril)Ie foreboding, that Father Lale- 
mant sailed for France, and turned over his office as Superior, and 
the volume of the Journal, to his successor, Father Raguencau. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



The Administration of Governor de Lauzon and the 
Failure of Nepotism. 

De Lauzon's long connection with the Company as In- 
tendant pointed him out as a suitable successor to Governor 
d'Aillebout; though had the good Cardinal been alive, his keen 
discrimination would have detected traits in de Lauzon's charac- 
ter which wholly unfitted him for independent command. But long 
before Montmagny's term had expired, the Cardinal's life had 
ebbed, and his shadow, Louis XIIL, had followed the vanish- 
ing minister to the grave. A still more anomalous pair of rulers 
succeeded the masterful statesman, and his pliant master, in the 
persons of the vain and erratic Anne of Austria and her hand- 
some, crafty adviser. Cardinal Mazarin. Nevertheless, although 
Richelieu was no more, his policy was still the controlling influence 
in colonial affairs. Mazarin recognized the truth that colonies 
unprotected by a navy are an easy prey to the enemy, and simply 
invite war. He, therefore, fostered the construction of a navy, 
to whose guns the fishing fleet, the mercantile marine, and the 
struggling colony across the sea might look for protection. In 
so doing he was carrying out what had been one of the dearest 
projects of his great predecessor. The humiliating loss of Quebec 
had taught Richelieu so deep a lesson, that notwfthstanding the 
extreme exhaustion of the resources of France consequent on his 
wars — successful and glorious though they were — with Spain and 
Austria, he hastened to build up a fleet of fifty-six war vessels. 
His name remains associated with the rapids on the St. Lawrence 
sixty miles above Quebec, and with the river, previously known as 
the Riviere des Iroquois, which formed the most important 
strategical highway between the great river and the Hudson. His 
pious niece, the founder of the Hotel Dieu, gave her name to the 
Rue d'Aiguillon in Quebec, which was then the principal thor- 



AX ODIOUS ADMINISTRATION. 



333 



oughfare between the city proper and the settlement that had 
gathered around the mission house of Notre Dame des Anges in 
the valley of the St. Charles. 

On the other hand Mazarin, the Italian priest, and Anne, the 
Spanish princess, have left no mark, however faint, on the nomen- 
clature of Quebec topography, and as little on the political institu- 
tions of the colony, unless the nomination of Laval as Bishop, 
which was made at Mazarin's suggestion, through the influence of 
the Queen Mother, was the fruit of the Cardinal's policy. His 
whole thought and energy- were absorbed in directing France's 
foreign wars, and his marvellous diplomatic skill found ample 
scope in wrenching from France's enemy the full benefits deriv- 
able from the victor}' won in the field. Unlike his predecessor, he 
paid little attention to the internal wants of the kingdom, still less 
to the woeful plight of her colonies. 

Governor succeeded governor during Mazarin's administra- 
tion, and the minority of Louis XIV., each less notable than his 
predecessor, between the date of de Lauzon's appearance on the 
.scene and the cancellation of the charter of the One Hundred As- 
sociates in 1663, when Canada at length became a Crown Colony, 
and Louis XIV. and his minister, Colbert, assumed the responsi- 
bility of giving it a constitution and conducting its government. 

De Lauzon retained office beyond the allotted period of three 
years. Feeble as was his adminstration during its first years, it 
became subsequently so odious, and he himself so unpopular on 
account of his meanness and parsimony, that he literally fled from 
the public opprobrium of which he was the object, and from the 
calamities into which his mistakes were visibly plunging the 
colony. 

His administration marked a departure, which, fortunately for 
Canada, was as shortlived as his governorship. The Company 
had pursued the only policy which a financial company can pos- 
sibly follow. It was created to make money ; and it lived to make 
money, whether successful in doing so or not. Nevertheless its 
agents, though generally luipopular in Quebec society, had not 
reprehensibly aimed at self and family aggrandizement. But 
de Lauzon, who had been appointed by Richelieu as Intendant, or 



334 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



financial agent of the Company in France, acquired by his in- 
fluence, or had conferred on himself, in 1632, the seignory of 
Lauzon and the Island of Montreal. The latter he afterwards 
transferred to the Maisonneuve company. On his assumption of 
the Governorship, he bestowed on his son Louis the seignory of La 
Citiere and Gaudarville, so called after Madame Gaudar, his first 
wife and Louis' mother. He secured the seignory of La Prairie for 
his son Frangois, who, in 1647, transferred it to the Jesuits, while 
his son Charles was invested with the seignory of Chine on the 
Island of Orleans, and in 1656 was also made the seig- 
neur of Levis. Thus, whether acting as a fiduciary agent of 
the Company in France, or as governor in Canada, he was in- 
defatigable in advancing the pecuniary and social interests of his 
family. His strangest freak was the use of his authority, as gov- 
ernor, to create the office of Grand Seneschal de la Nouvelle 
France, and to confer on his son John, then seventeen years of 
age, this high-sounding title. On Charles he further con- 
ferred the office and title of Grand Maitre des Eaux et Forets de 
la Nouvelle France, with certain fishing rights and perquisites 
which caused general resentment. 

To secure heirs, his sons married early, and took to wife 
colonial girls of property and good social standing. Jean, 
the Great Seneschal, who knew so little law that a substitute had 
to be at once appointed, had come to Canada when a mere boy in 
1644. Between that date and his appointment as Supreme Judge 
he had served with distinction in the French army, but he had 
not forgotten his Canadian sweetheart, for he made haste to 
marry her on the 23rd of October, 1651, only nine days after he 
had disembarked. Charles, the Grand Master of Waters and 
Forests, came out in January, 1652. He was a youth of only 
fourteen, yet in less than two months he had taken to wife Marie 
Louise, the daughter and heiress of Robert GifiPard, the Seigneur 
of Beauport, a girl two years younger than himself. Frangois, 
the second son, notwithstanding his possession of the seignory 
of La Prairie, does not seem to have been able to ingratiate 
himself into the favor of the pretty girls of Canada. To his 
fourth son, Louis of La Citiere and Gaudarville, de Lauzon had 



NEPOTISM OF DE LAUZON. 



335 



given grant after grant on one plea or another; but Louis was 
hard to please, and it was not until 1665 that he married a girl of 
twenty-one, the daughter of Mons. Jacques Nau de Fossambault. 
The young lady in question had been sent out by the Duchess 
d'Aiguillon as a nurse and novice of the Hotel Dieu, but, before 
taking the veil, she decided that she was not intended for the 
religious life. 

Thus three sons of the ambitious Governor married and settled 
in Canada, yet they failed to realize his hopes in the matter of per- 
petuating his family and kindred. Jean was killed by the Iro- 
quois on the Island of Orleans in 1661, and his daughters entered 
nunneries. Charles lost his wife in October, 1656, and, horrified 
by the desperate state of the colony, which he was powerless to im- 
prove, threw up his authority as his father's gubernatorial repre- 
sentative, sailed to France and entered the Church. He had in- 
herited the family cupidity, for, notwithstanding his assumption 
of the religious life, he never relinquished the emoluments of his 
civil offices, even after returning as a priest with Bishop Laval in 
1659. His only child, a daughter, entered the convent in La Ro- 
chelle, so no heirs succeeded to his empty office. 

De Lauzon was an old man of sixty-nine when he came to Can- 
ada ; his failures may, therefore, be charged to those who appoint- 
ed him rather than to himself. At the same time the incapacity he 
manifested in Canada is surprising, considering that he was the 
first Canadian intendant and owed his appointment to the creator 
of that order of functionaries, that he had been influential in bring- 
ing about the restoration of Quebec to France after its capture by 
Kirke, and had exerted considerable influence in favor of the 
Jesuits and against the return of the Recollets. From such a man 
much might have been expected, yet, as Governor of Canada, he 
showed himself utterly unable to realize the situation of the colony. 
The same obtuscness which made him confer ridiculous titles on 
his sons led him, in 1656, to engage in foolish schemes of remote 
colonization, when every man was wanted for defense at vital 
points on the St. Lawrence. 

During the five years of his tenure of office Quebec grew but 
little. Beyond its fort no one was safe from the Iroquois; in- 



■33^ QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

dustry, in consequence, was paralyzed and immigration ceased. 
De Lauzon secured for the colonists a small body of troops, 
which arrived the same year as himself, but they were at once dis- 
patched to Three Rivers, where the Governor, de Plessis-Bochart, 
with a small body of militia, which he had recently organized and 
drilled, attacked a body of marauding Iroquois, but with ill-suc- 
cess, for he was defeated and killed. It was a crushing blow, in- 
volving the death or capture of fifteen armed men. Three Rivers 
itself was seen to be at the mercy of the Iroquois ; and Sillery, with 
only a wooden palisade for defense, was a vulnerable point. In 
all haste, fortifications were thrown up around the Church of 
Three Rivers, and the few houses and wigwams that clustered 
about it, and small cannon were mounted, but the expected attack 
was not made. Indian tactics, then as now, forbade their battling 
in the open, or assaulting fortified positions. The rules of the hunt- 
er are the rules of the Indian warrior. By stealth and subterfuge 
he tracks his game, waylays and kills his enemy, taking both, if 
possible, unawares. On the skill, secrecy, and noiseless movement 
with which he watches and strikes his victim, without needlessly 
exposing himself, depends the success of the Indian warrior ; and 
to these quaHties the Iroquois added tireless energy and industry 
together with a ceaseless watchfulness. They terrorized the 
tribes from Lake Superior to Hudson Bay, and swept down with 
the same relentless cruelty on some of the Atlantic tribes, which 
were akin to themselves. The stealthiness of their approach and 
the suddenness of their attack created universal unrest. At Mon- 
treal fear became panic, while in Quebec murder after murder in 
the vicinity, and the reports constantly arriving of crimes else- 
where, produced a condition of ceaseless anxiety. 

Father Jacques Buteux, moved by a desire to spread Chris- 
tianity among the docile Indians of the upper St. Maurice, though 
in feeble health, started from Three Rivers on April 4th, 1652, 
with a band of Algonquins and Hurons and a single Frenchman. 
Unable to keep up with the party, he and his trusted French 
companion, with the Huron, lagged behind, and when distant a 
month's travel from the settlement, the two Frenchmen were shot 
by the Iroquois from an ambush, and the Huron taken prisoner. 



RAVAGES OF THE MOHAWKS. 



337, 



Next year Father Poncet and a French layman were surprised 
near Quebec by some Mohawks and adopted Hurons, and carried 
captive to the ^lohawk valley, where the layman was burnt. The 
priest, after being maimed, was given to an old woman who had 
lost her relations. The flying column, organized by Mons. de Ma- 
zures, left Quebec under the command of Eustace Lambert in 
the hope of recovering him. They found the road effectually 
blocked by an overwhelming force of the enemy at Three Rivers. 
They did good service, however, at this point, in protecting the 
almost defenceless hamlet, and in taking some Iroquois prisoners. 
Force having failed to rescue the captive, negotiations were 
opened for an exchange of prisoners and for peace, and to this 
step Mons. Poncet probably owed his life. 

So panic stricken was Montreal that in the Spring of the year 
a schooner sent up from Quebec to receive intelligence of its wel- 
fare, returned with the dismal tidings that all the inhabitants were 
either dead or captured, as on approaching the place no signs of 
life were visible, so that it was deemed unsafe to investigate 
further. One is reminded of the first relief expedition to Khar- 
toum. After this the Jesuit Fathers and their servants had a re- 
spite until 1655, when brother Liegeois, while working in the field 
near Sillery, was shot, scalped, and decapitated by some Mohawks. 
Brother Liegeois was the architect of the Order, and was at the 
time superintending some additional fortifications at Sillery. 
Brother Louis Le Boesme was wounded at the Platon river, but 
escaped. 

The list of the murders throughout the colony is a terribly 
long one. Quebec suffered least. As early as 165 1 Nicholas Pinel 
and his son Giles were shot at on their clearing, but escaped. The 
Iroquois then fired harmlessly through the door of an Indian shan- 
ty, but though no one was hurt, the whole town was so alarmed 
that when the dogs barked that night on the Cote Ste. Genevieve, 
imaginary Iroquois were seen prowling everywhere in the dark- 
ness. Other alarms were given, and actual crimes were com- 
mitted : but the same thing may have happened in those troublous 
days as happens to-day in the West, when white men seize the 



338 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



Opportunity of the Indians being on the warpath or restless to 
commit deviltry, assured that it will be attributed to the redskins. 
There were Algonquins and Hurons as ruthless as the Iroquois, 
and it would be strange if even all Frenchmen shrank from com- 
mitting crime under the cloak of Mohawk atrocities. 

The year 1654 opened with hopes of peace. Onondaga com- 
missioners came with the avowed purpose of negotiating with the 
Governor, but with the covert object of weaning the Hurons from 
their allegiance to the French. The scattered bands of that unfor- 
tunate tribe, which had followed one another to Quebec, had been 
settled on land bought from Mad'lle de Grande Maison, on the 
Island of Orleans, in March, 1651, and to the heads of families had 
been allotted farms of from twenty perches to one-half acre in size. 
But the steady toil of agriculture has always been irksome to 
the Indian. They vastly preferred hunting, and their French 
neighbors were ever ready to engage in a little illicit fur 
trade with them. Three of Mons. Giffard's servants were drowned 
one night when returning from a clandestine negotiation for 
beaver skins. Moreover, despite the surveillance which their civil 
and spiritual guides maintained, the mission kept up a secret 
intercourse with one branch or another of their implacable 
Iroquois kinsmen. The delegates from the Confederacy, who 
were met by Father le Mercier, himself returning from a 
secret conference with his Christian converts, were Onon- 
dagas, but they bore presents from the Mohawks. The 
Christian converts kept the Father informed of the progress 
of these secret councils, and the Father transmitted the 
news to the Governor, who in February took into his con- 
fidence a number of the leading citizens at the fort. It was decided 
to charge the Hurons with their treachery. They were con- 
founded, and promised to obey the instructions of the Governor. 
Here, unfortunately, Father Mercier's minute story comes to a 
summary stop. Whatever the ulterior designs of the Iroquois 
might have been, they were willing to conceal them under over- 
tures for peace. Promises of peace had been made when Father 
Poncet was exchanged in the previous year, and these were now 
reiterated. They were confirmed, when Father Le Moyne, taking 



JESUIT VERSUS INDIAN DIPLOMACY. 



339 



his life in his hands, accompanied the Onondagas back to their 
lodges. 

Though the Mohawks were ostensibly a party to the peace, 
the French Governor and his ecclesiastical advisers had probably 
a motive in sending Le Moyne to the Western canton rather than 
to the council lodge of the Mohawks. The Mohawks occupying 
the valley of the river to which they gave their name, and 
separated from Fort Orange in the Dutch settlement by only 
a low ridge, not only enjoyed the closest relations with their 
commercial neighbors, but were able to levy a direct or an 
indirect tax for passage through their territory on the more 
Western tribes. Hence there was a spark of jealousy 
smouldering in the heart of the Confederacy, which Father Le 
Moyne, as priest delegate, tried to fan into a flame. The confusion 
of motives, policy arid action exhibited in the treatment by the 
civil powers of the Indians, whether friends or foes, can be ex- 
plained only when one recollects that, while the Jesuits were the 
counselors of several of the Governors on matters in general, their 
special knowledge of the Indian character and speech gave their 
advice on Indian affairs almost the authority of a command ; and 
— a point of much importance — that their opinions upon Indian 
policy were unavoidably biased by their religious hopes and fears. 

When d'Aillebout needed an ambassador to negotiate with the 
English, he chose a Jesuit priest ; in like manner, when a 
clever, trustworthy agent was needed to argue with the Onon- 
dagas as to who were their friends and who were their enemies, 
de Lauzon accepted the services of another Jesuit. The members 
of the Order had studied the Indian language and the customs of 
the aborigines, and were by training skillful diplomats as well as 
earnest ecclesiastics. The aptness of their si)ccch has always been 
matched by the profound discretion of their silence. Neitlier 
in the Relations, which deal witli the religious work of the 
society, nor in the JoiirnaL whicli narrates the more trifling 
events of everyday life, is there even a liint of the instruc- 
tions given to their members when sent on important politi- 
cal missions, or of the outcome of the negotiations. It was a 
century later before Father Cliarlevoix, in his history, discussed 



340 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



the political bearing of these religio-political commissions. It 
would be interesting to know how the interference of the Jesuit 
Order in these delicate negotiations was regarded by the intelli- 
gent laymen of the colony, and especially of Quebec — the center 
of government. We know that Maisonneuve and the semi-reli- 
gious community of Montreal resented the influence of the Jesuits. 
Father Mercier mentions Maisonneuve's attempt to stop the 
Onondaga delegate in January, 1654; and we can hardly doubt 
that in Quebec also there must have been more or less apprehen- 
sion lest the religious enthusiasm of the missionaries should 
sway their political judgment, and so render the priest a preju- 
diced adviser and a dangerous negotiator. A symptom of such 
jealousy may be seen in d'Aillebout's appointment of Mons. Gode- 
froy as joint ambassador with Father Druillettes to the New Eng- 
land confederacy. Nevertheless, in Indian negotiations, the Jesuit 
Order could claim a just and valid right to be consulted. In the 
crisis into which the colony was then drifting their policy was to 
sow suspicion among the members of the several Iroquois tribes — 
possibly to create a Western Iroquois confederation which should 
look to France for assistance against the powerful Mohawk tribe. 
The Mohawks, thus isolated, would find it more to their ad- 
vantage to enter into a real alliance with France, than to be ground 
between the conflicting European forces which were sure to en- 
gage in a struggle for mastery over the whole territory. 

In the end the Indians proved to be more wily politicians than 
even the priests. Father Le Moyne was treated royally by the 
Onondagas, and returned to Quebec in the autumn of 1654, full 
of hopes of peace, and bearing good tidings of the fidelity of the 
Huron Christians, who, though absorbed into the heathen tribe, 
had still clung to their religious faith and practice. The enthusias- 
tic accounts given in the Relations of Indian piety — whether ex- 
hibited by Hurons, Algonquins, or even Iroquois — seem strange- 
ly unreal, if judged by the ultimate results and by the attitude of 
the Indians to-day towards the Church : still it would be unfair to 
the Jesuits to stamp them as inventions, or even always as gross 
exaggerations. The Indian is as susceptible of religious excite- 
ment as the white man. History has recorded many a paroxysm 



A SUDDEN CALM. 



of devotion or fanaticism which swept over almost the whole of 
Europe. On a smaller scale, we have all witnessed the powerful 
but transient excitement of local Christian revivals. Among the 
Indians of our own day the Messiah craze affected nearly all the 
tribes in the Northwest States and Territories with an intensity 
which so blinded them to prudence and reason as, not only 
to endanger the peace of a large section of the Rocky Mountain 
region, but to expose them to the risk of self-annihilation. The 
sense of desperation has in all times stimulated, if it has not pro- 
duced, religious enthusiasm ; and the sad plight not only of the 
Hurons but of other neighboring tribes, under the dread of exter- 
mination, at one moment by the Iroquois, at another by epidemic 
diseases, must have strongly inclined them to accept the consola- 
tions and hopes held out by Christianity. 

The confidence created by the peace of 1654 was dispelled 
by the murder of Brother Liegeois near Sillery ; but there was no 
evidence directly implicating the Iroquois. Subsequently a story 
was current in Quebec — a most improbable one — that Father 
Le Moyne, when returning with his Onondaga escort, had been 
attacked by a band of Mohawks, but that he had concealed the 
fact, lest it should excite his countrymen to war. The Mohawks 
at this time were so far from desiring war that they not only sued 
for peace, but prayed that a missionary should be sent to them 
also. Such a change of heart and policy was indeed extraor- 
dinary, and Mere jNIarie de ITncarnation could only attribute it 
to the miraculous protection of God, who had so blinded their 
enemies that they could not appreciate their own strength or the 
colony's feebleness. Incidentally, however, she attributes the 
impression made on the Iroquois to the musical services of the 
church. "The Iroquois ambassadors, like other Indians, love 
singing. They were enchanted at hearing our good peo])le sing 
in French, and as a mark of their aj)prcciation they attempted to 
imitate the chant by a song after their own manner; but their 
measures were not harmonious." 

The Onondaga peace delegates were in Quebec during the 
celebration of the jubilee, on the 8th of September, 1653, and the 
Jesuit Journal relates how terrified the Iroquois were by the dis- 



34^ QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

play of military force. Four hundred musketeers were in the 
line of march, and discharged their firearms at proper intervals. 
Suite cannot account for more than 400 as the total population of 
Quebec; this overwhelming force must therefore have con- 
sisted of armed Indians, whom the Iroquois had driven for 
shelter to Quebec. They looked brave enough when masquerad- 
ing under the guns of France, but the Iroquois knew that, if they 
were Algonquins, they were cowards, and if Hurons, dispirited 
fugitives. Again the undaunted Father Le Moyne pleaded to be 
allowed to run the risk of martyrdom on the very spot where 
Father Jogues had offered up his life, and his request was 
granted, but with happier results; though once a fanatic or a 
lunatic, running amuck, did threaten his life. 

To the Onondagas in 1655 two missionaries were sent from 
Quebec — Fathers Chaumont and Dablon — accompanied by a large 
deputation of that nation. Their reception was enthusiastic. A 
church was built and converts were made, but the message of the 
gospel did not quell the warlike spirit of the tribe, which engaged 
that very year, with the other members of the Confederacy, in de- 
stroying the Fries (Les Chats). Nevertheless, Father Dablon 
felt so confident of the amicable temper of the Onondagas, and of 
their Christian receptivity, that he returned to Quebec early in the 
Spring of 1656 in order to persuade De Lauzon to found a colony 
in their midst. The Governor most unwisely acceded to his 
request, in spite of the warning of a Huron, who had lived long 
among the Onondagas, and could better interpret their motives, 
and permitted sixty men to accompany the missionaries, thus 
weakening his already slender force by that number. By a 
miscalculation, an attempt of the Mohawks to destroy the 
detachment while en route failed. Whether or nor the plot was 
prearranged between the Mohawks and the Onondagas must re- 
main uncertain, but all pretense of friendliness was now thrown 
ofT by the Mohawks. 

One morning before daylight a fleet of canoes, manned by 
Mohawk Iroquois, dropped down to the Island of Orleans. They 
fell upon the Hurons, who were at work in their fields, killed six 
and carried ofif eighty captives. Defiantly and unmolested they 



RENEWAL OF THE MOHAWK WAR. 



343 



paddled past the fort in full daylight, obliging their captives to 
sing a warsong, and, without pursuit or resistance, reached their 
village, where a few of the prisoners were tortured and burnt, and 
the rest adopted into the tribe. The celerity with which the attack 
and retreat were made, and the lack of preparedness, due to the 
false security of the Governor and his priestly advisers, do not 
sufficiently account for the impunity with which this stroke on the 
part of the Indians was dealt. 

The chief explanation is to be found in the feeble force 
at the disposal of the Governor. Nevertheless, only a fort- 
night later, when thirty Ottawas appeared, under the leader- 
ship of two erratic Frenchmen, de Lauzon allowed thirty of his 
best men and two Jesuit Fathers to return with them. In trying 
to analyze his folly in thus depleting his resources in men, one is 
forced to attribute his action, in part at least, to motives of com- 
merce. The conversion of the savages may have been dear to his 
heart, but the prosperity of the Company was dearer still. Trade 
had been stagnant during the whole of his term of office, and he 
may possibly have determined to signalize its close by two bril- 
liant strokes of policy. The Onondaga colony, it was hoped, would 
deflect the fur trade from the Hudson to the St. Lawrence, and the 
Frenchmen who occupied the Ottawa and Lake Superior might 
be the pioneers — as in fact they proved to be — of a succession of 
traders, who should win for France, first, the traffic in peltries, 
then the dominion of that mysterious interior which had gradu- 
ally expanded to such vast proportions. Both expeditions would 
have been politic at another time, but just at this crisis they were 
almost criminal. Every man withdrawn from Oue])cc increased 
the peril of the whole country, as no one should have known 
better than de Lauzon himself ; for ever since he had landed the 
Iroquois had menaced its very exist(?ncc, and recently had insulted 
him under the guns of his own ChdUau. They had destroyed or 
scattered, first the Hurons, then the Fries and Ottawas, and now 
they were tracking the Huron fugitives with the keen scent of 
bloodhounds. They recognized in them a branch of their own 
stock, and unless they could succeed in absorbing them, would 
pursue them with a relentless vengeance until they were utterly 



344 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



destroyed. They preferred the former alternative, for to win 
back their recalcitrant kinsmen from under the very eyes and 
protection of Onontio himself, and his black-robed priests, 
would be a greater triumph than to destroy them. 

After taking two such frightful hazards, de Lauzon sailed for 
France in September, 1656, leaving his son Charles as his repre- 
sentative. He was thus spared before his departure the knowledge 
of the tragic fate which had befallen Father Garreau and others 
of the Ottawa expedition at the hands of a band of Mohawks, 
who had been lying in ambush for them at the entrance to the 
Ottawa River. 



CHAPTER XVIL 



A Dreary Chapter in the History of the Colony and 

City* 

Whatever semblance of friendship for the French there may 
have been on the part of the Onondagas and the western members 
of the Confederacy, the Mohawks made no attempt to disguise 
their hostility or their contempt, but continued to conduct negotia- 
tions with the miserable remnant of the Hurons. Thus it 
came about that, in the autumn of this same year, when eighty 
of the latter had been forcibly carried away captive, a deputa- 
tion of Mohawks appeared in Quebec to claim the fulfilment of the 
promise made by the rest, that they would peaceably accompany 
them and accept affiliation into their tribe. There was no conceal- 
ment on the part of the Mohawks, and no denial on the part of the 
Hurons. The delegates in fact demanded a public audience to 
state their case, and the Governor granted it. There had been 
many a pow-wow with the Indians in Quebec, but never a council 
in which the Indian was the aggressor and the government on 
the defensive. 

The orator of the Mohawk deputation first claimed of the 
Hurons the fulfilment of their promise to return with them. Then 
he appealed to the Governor not to interfere, hardly concealing a 
threat of what would happen should he do so. The council ad- 
journed that the Hurons might deliberate. On its reassembling, 
Father Le Moync, who had made more than one trip to and fro 
between the Mohawk ^^alley and Quebec, spoke. lie tried to re- 
lieve the Governor's embarrassment by declaring that the Hurons 
were of age and free to choose their own course; adding that he 
himself would follow them, should they decide to desert their 
homes, lest they might also desert their faith. The only branch 
of the Hurons which decided to return with the deputation was 
the family of the Bears. 



34^ QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

The Mohawks had hardly left with their contingent of the 
Hurons, when, as if by concert, a deputation of the Onondagas 
appeared to claim fulfilment of a like pledge. They pretended 
indignation when they heard that the Bears had left to join the 
Mohawks. The Governor pacified them with smooth words, and, 
as the Hurons had repented of their promise, explained that the 
women and children were afraid to accompany an armed force; 
but that the following year all would join a deputation of Onon- 
dagas in Montreal, should one be sent to meet them there in a 
•friendly spirit. With such subterfuges they were fain to be con- 
tent, but in their unmoved and stolid countenances an experienced 
eye might have read the bitter disappointment that was rankling 
in their hearts. 

No outbreak occurred, however, until the following summer. 
According to Charlevoix, the Onondagas appeared in Montreal at 
the time appointed, to accompany their Huron guests ; but though 
they had professed unbounded admiration for the French, 
comparing them most advantageously, morally and socially, with 
the Dutch, whom they had met at Fort Orange, when the moment 
of departure arrived, they positively refused to allow any French- 
men or any priest to join the company. At last they relented so 
far as to permit a few French laymen to enter their canoes, but 
denied a place to the priests. These, rather than be parted from 
their converts, found an old canoe, and, with no other provisions 
than a sack of flour, followed the cortege. 

Dissension occurred on the way. Some of the Hurons were 
killed, and those that arrived had anything but a cheerful tale to 
tell to the sixty colonists whom de Lauzon had so foolishly allow- 
ed to accompany Father Le Moyne. These had already begun to 
doubt the sincerity of their hosts, and to entertain apprehensions 
for their own safety; for news had reached the Iroquois country 
that a band of One^idas had killed and scalped three French- 
men hunting near Montreal, and that, in reprisal, d'Aillebout, 
who had been appointed by Charles de Lauzon as interim Gov- 
ernor, in the same manner in which Charles had been nominated 
by his father, had ordered the arrest of every Iroquois, ir- 
respective of tribe, within the confines of Canada. Father Le 



IROQUOIS AND HURONS. 



347 



Moyne had been entreated by the Mohawks to return at once and 
use his influence for the hberation of those of their tribe who, they 
claimed, were being punished for no fault of their own. He delayed 
his departure till the Spring of 1658, when, in fulfilment of their 
promise of a safe conduct, the savages delivered him unharmed 
in Montreal, though war had actually commenced. As to the mem- 
bers of the Onondaga colony, it had become evident to them some 
time before that the peace was about to be broken, and that unless 
they could escape by some ruse, their slaughter was inevitable. 
How Dupuis managed to extricate his little band of Frenchmen 
from the perilous position is only one of the thousand and one 
thrilling episodes of this romantic period of Canadian history. 

Thus ended in flight the Onondaga colony, the only piece of 
original statecraft of de Lauzon's administration. He, the Jesuits, 
his successor, Charles de Lauzon, and d'Aillebout, had all been 
outwitted by the Iroquois. It may be doubted whether there was 
really any actual jealousy between the Mohawks and the Western 
Iroquois ; it is more probable that the French had been lulled into 
security by fictitious dissensions, while the peace had been used 
to draw away the Hurons from allegiance to their white allies, 
to whom, notwithstanding their feebleness, they were of inestim- 
able value as scouts. If they could be tempted to desert, 
not only would the French be deprived of their aid, but the 
fighting material of the Five Nations would be recruited by men 
of the same origin as themselves. Both Mohawks and Onondagas 
were, therefore, anxious to win, rather than destroy, the rem- 
nant of the Hurons. All disguise was thrown aside before Dupuis 
reached the St. Lawrence from Onondaga with his band of fugi- 
tive colonists. Even before the return of Father Lc Moyne the 
war had broken out with such violence that the inhabitants of 
Montreal dared not venture beyond their defences; while, as far 
east as Quebec, white men and red were falling victims to the mur- 
derous enemy. There was no one to stay their hand. The elder de 
Lauzon had carried back his lialhicinations to old France. His 
feeble son, and substitute as riovernor. anxious for the release 
from responsibility tlie priesthoml would give him, liad, after a 
year's experience, shifted the care of the colony on to the shoulders 



348 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



of d'Aillebout, whose previous administration had been far too 
lacking in force and decision to strike terror into the hearts of the 
Iroquois. In his second administration he at least showed more 
resolution than his predecessor in venturing to seize all the Iro- 
quois he could lay his hands on, as soon as it was found that the 
Mohawks had renewed hostilities. 

Even had the younger de Lauzon and d'Aillebout been men of 
strong character, they held office, not by appointment from 
France, but merely as interim nominees of their respective pre- 
decessors. Moreover, the French government, as usual, left them 
defenceless, while they lacked the prestige which a Royal patent 
would have conferred. 

At last there came from France a real nobleman as Governor 
— the Vicomte d'Argenson, a man in whom the military instinct 
was so strong that he had abandoned for the profession of arms the 
advantages which the Church offered to a man of family, and had 
distinguished himself in the battles of Sens and Bordeaux during 
the Fronde troubles. He was greeted, on the very day of his ar- 
rival, July II, 1658, by the war-whoop of the Iroquois and the 
shrieks of helpless Algonquin women, who were being murdered 
under the shadow of Cape Diamond. He organized a pursuing 
party, but did not himself lead it. He had the ceremonies and 
courtesies of the court to attend to, and an engagement to keep 
with the Jesuit Fathers, who had invited him to dinner, after 
which there was to be a garden party, where he and the people of 
Quebec were to be entertained by a little play. The pursuing 
party which he had sent out failed to overtake the victors or their 
captives, but a check to the elation of the savages was administer- 
ed by La Potherie, the brave and prudent Governor of Three 
Rivers, when he seized eight warriors, who had approached the 
fort on the pretence of a peace parley, but whom he suspected, 
not without reason, of other designs. One he held as hostage, the 
others he shipped to Quebec to be dealt with as the new Governor 
might deem fit. This incident somewhat damped the ardor of the 
Iroquois, and a brief respite from war followed on the action 
taken by d'Argenson, who decided to allow two of his prisoners 
to return to the Mohawks and tell their fellow tribesmen that the 



NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE ENEMY. 



349 



five were held as a pledge for their good behavior. This capture by 
La Potherie was followed speedily by another signal success in the 
neighborhood of Three Rivers, the first news of which was the 
arrival of five more Iroquois prisoners at Quebec on the 25th of 
September; then two more Iroquois, who had taken refuge in 
Couture's house through the wrecking of their canoe, fell into the 
hands of the French. 

These disasters did not, however, entirely quench the courage 
of the doughty warriors. Two of them had the hardihood to land 
at Cap Rouge, and threaten a certain Nopce with death unless 
he gave them news of their imprisoned brethren. They then looted 
the store of Mons. Gauthier, and joined the rest of the band on 
the south shore. Mere de ITncarnation tells of a terrible thunder- 
storm in October, which the Iroquois took advantage of to frighten 
the serving man of the convent, burn their barn, and carry off the 
oxen. Their audacity, we are told, stirred the Governor to make 
a reconnoissance, accompanied by twenty-five Frenchmen and two 
priests ; but nothing was seen of the enemy, and possibly the story 
was largely the creation of nervous fright. 

The winter was approaching, and the Iroquois were paddling 
up stream and making their presence known at various places. At 
Three Rivers they captured, on the 6th of November, four 
Frenchmen who were cutting hay on the flats of the south shore. 
Immediately afterwards, on Lac St. Pierre, they secured four 
more prisoners. They allowed one to return with a message to 
the Governor that the seven others would be well cared for, 
and exchanged in the following spring for their own men if a 
treaty of peace were made. On further thought they decided not 
to leave their kinsmen in durance vile so long, if the matter could 
be otherwise arranged, and consequently a deputation of them ap- 
peared on the 20th under the guidance of Father Le Moync, and 
accompanied by a Dutchman from the Hudson, whose presence 
they seemed to regard as equivalent to a safe conduct. There was a 
great council held, resulting in an exchange of prisoners. All the 
Iroquois prisoners but four were liberated — these four being held 
as hostages for the safety of the Jesuit Fathers in the Iroquois 
country. The captive Frenchmen were restored to their friends. 



350 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

The usual invitation was made to Iroquois girls to come and 
marry French lads, and thus cement the peace. 

Had the French authorities shown as much vigor as the Iro- 
quois, the positions might have been reversed, for the river was 
not free of ice when, on April 3rd, three Oneidas appeared to treat 
for the liberation of their countrymen. The first council was held 
on the 5th of April, but, as the Governor was firm in main- 
taining that the Algonquins and Hurons must be parties to 
any treaty made, and as the month had nearly ended be- 
fore Noel, the principal Algonquin chief, returned from his 
winter hunt, the final council was not held until the 28th. 
Thus it was the 30th before the ambassadors, the liberated prison- 
ers, and Father Le Moyne paddled away, accompanied as far as 
Three Rivers by the Superior of the Jesuits, by Father Druillettes 
and by a host of Algonquins, who went thus far to give their final 
instructions and a hearty godspeed to the Algonquin ambassadors, 
who were accompanying Father Le Moyne and the Oneidas to the 
Iroquois country. 

The town of Quebec, it will be seen, had not been allowed to 
stagnate for lack of excitement. The coming and going of the 
dusky envoys were known to all, and the hopes and fears to which 
every council gave rise were shared by all ; for the Indian war was 
waged at their very door, and the number of slain, though small, 
constituted a larger proportion of the scanty population than the 
casualties of a war usually reach, when calculated on the popula- 
tion of a ^reat nation. 

Distressing as the situation of the colony had heretofore been, 
it was growing steadily worse. Day after day came news of Iro- 
quois hovering about the settlement, and of overt acts of hostility, 
at the very time when the Mohawks, with Father Le Moyne, 
were actually en route to treat for the surrender of the four pris- 
oners still in the Frenchmen's hands. The mission arrived on the 
3rd of July, and four tedious discussions were held before it was 
decided to deliver up two of the prisoners, and retain two as hos- 
tages for the safe release of two Frenchmen in the hands of the 
Onondagas. These negotiations were doubtless followed with 
keen interest by those whose relatives were in captivity; but, to 



THE HURONS TAKE SHELTER AT QUEBEC. 



the rest of the population, there was something very hollow in 
protestations and promises which experience had shown were 
liable to be broken without notice, at the first suggestion of caprice 
or the first imagination of a grievance. 

Events of greater interest to the Quebeckers were the arrival 
of Bishop Laval on the i6tli of June, 1659; the dispute which 
was raging between Father Oueylus, head of the Sulpicians of 
jMontreal, and the Jesuits, which the Bishop lost no time 
in taking up ; the organization of the Quebec Church following 
the Bishop's arrival : the descent of some sixty canoes with peltries 
from the upper Lakes, giving promise of a revival of trade, 
which of late years had been very dull ; and the starting of ]\Ions. 
Denis' flour mill, situated on the hill above the Ursuline Convent. 
The houses being of wood, fires at this period were not infrequent. 
Sometimes one would occur, as in the case of the Ursuline 
Convent, which assumed the dimensions of a public calamity; 
while smaller conflagrations would bring heavy loss to private 
individuals. Good Mathieu Chourel and his wife were at mass 
at Beauport when their house was burnt down. Martin Prevot's 
house suffered the same fate, and in February, 1661, the house 
of Boutentrein, in the Lower Town, was burnt to the ground 
with all its contents. The Bishop tried to stop the fire with 
the Host, as has been done in our day, and some thought that the 
fury of the flames was momentarily checked ; nevertheless the 
building with all that it contained w^as totally consumed. 

The new Ursuline Convent, enlarged though it was, could 
hardly accommodate the influx of pupils when the Indians were 
forced by the Iroquois into the town. Even before the raid made 
by the Iroquois on the Huron settlement on the Island of Orleans, 
preparations were under way to transfer the remnant of that na- 
tion to Quebec. When the removal took |)!ace tliey pitched tlieir 
wigwams on the open space before the fort, and there subse- 
quently a stockade was erected for their protection. Those 
who had not followed tlic cliicf of the Bear family to tlic 
Iroquois country took refuge in the city, and, to quote Mere (le 
ITncarnation's own words — "Their girls, to the number of seventy 
or eighty, went every day as pupils to the convent. After worship 



352 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

and instruction a portion of sagamite was served to each girl on 
her own plate of birch bark. Then, after returning thanks, each 
went to her cabin, there to share her meal with her family." 

No fervor of charity, however, could render an Indian encamp- 
ment in the heart of the town long endurable. Huron Chris- 
tians, notwithstanding their acknowledged virtues, were still In- 
dians, and their old habits were not wholly eradicated by 
.their conversion. Nevertheless, as it would have been barbar- 
ous to drive them beyond the pale of protection, their pres- 
ence was tolerated until the peace of De Tracy in 1667, when they 
were removed a mile and a half from the city to the mission of 
Notre Dame de la Foye. Even there the mutual injury to morals, 
which results from too close proximity between white men and 
Indians, must have been severely felt, for the remnant of the once 
great nation was transplanted in 1693 to Ancienne Lorette. Long 
subsequently they built the pretty village which they still occupy 
beside the falls of the St. Charles, and which they lovingly named 
Jeune Lorette. Here, on the very outskirts of the great forest 
which stretches northward without break to the Arctic regions, 
they can cultivate their farms and yet obey their racial hunting 
instincts. Happily there has never been between the Indian and 
the Frenchman that repugnance which prevents lawful wedlock, 
and therefore the blending of the two in the Lorette Indian of to- 
day has produced a type which combines some of the admirable 
qualities of both nations. The work of the Jesuit Fathers still 
bears its fruit, and whoever knows the Lorette Indian and has 
hunted with him, can excuse the vein of exaggeration in which the 
Jesuit Fathers record the many virtues of their converts. 

The first ship of the season of 1659 had brought out the Bishop, 
and from the last, the "Saint Andre," which arrived on September 
6th, there landed three nuns and two priests for Montreal. Their 
ministrations had been needed on the voyage, for there were on 
board one hundred and thirty immigrants intended for Montreal, 
not Quebec, and typhoid fever of so virulent a type had broken out 
among them that ten had died. The Jesuit annalist is not sure 
whether the number is nine or ten. The matter was a purely mun- 
dane one, and he was more anxious to record an incident of really 



PEST-STRICKEN IMMIGEIANTS. 



353 



serious, that is to say of ecclesiastical, moment. The Bishop 
and the Viceroy were already quarreling as to the selection 
of their seat or throne in the Church. Fortunately there 
was a mediator at hand in the person of ex-Governor d'Aille- 
bout, who decided that the Bishop should sit within the altar rail, 
the Governor in the very middle of the aisle, but outside the balus- 
trade. After narrating how the momentous issue had been settled. 
Father Lalemant goes on to tell of the landing of four patients 
from the ship and the spread of the disease among the people. 
But perhaps, after all, the victory of the Bishop over the Gover- 
nor in this trifling incident was of more importance in its bearing 
on the future of the colony than the death of a few poor folk from 
fever. The lives of these were in any case to be of short dura- 
tion, but the political power of the Church, for which Laval, from 
first to last, fought valiantly and consistently, was a force that was 
never to die, but which was destined to shape the character both 
of the people and of the Government for all time to come. 

It was a very sad autumn for the little town. The Iroquois 
were everywhere, and had carried off a man named Routier from 
Cap Rouge, while the contagious fever was picking off its 
victims, among whom was good Father de Quen, who had, like 
many a devoted priest, fallen a voluntary martyr to duty when 
ministering to the dying. Not many were added to the popula- 
tion by the one hundred and thirty immigrants who had sailed 
from France in the "Saint Andre," for of these some, as we have 
seen, died on shipboard, others landed only to occupy a narrow 
bed in the little cemetery at the top of Mountain Hill, or the 
Hotel Dieu graveyard, while not a few of the old inhabitants 
succumbed to the deadly disease. 

The spring of 1660 l^rought no relief, but, on the con- 
trary, intensified the prevailing anxiety. An Iroquois pris- 
oner was brought in by a band of Tadousac Indians. 
He was too seriously wounded to survive a journey to Tadousac, 
whither his captors would have taken him, in order that the 
whole tribe micfht revel in the sight of his death agony; so 
they burnt liini in One])ec ; but he had first the satisfaction 
of terrifying tlie whole town with a story of the marshal- 



354 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



ling of a great array of 800 of his tribesmen. Mere Marie de I'ln- 
carnation tells the story graphically in one of her letters. "After 
disposing of the prisoner, that is, burning him, it was determined 
to inspect the nunnery and to decide whether it was fit to with- 
stand a siege. The Governor, accompanied by experts, visited the 
building several times, and posted sentries at each end of our 
house. At regular intervals they changed guards. Redoubts were 
thrown out, the strongest being near our stable. It defended the 
barn on one side and the church on the other. All our windows 
were walled up and perforated with loopholes. Openings were 
made from room to room, and a bridge thrown between our dwell- 
ing and that of our servants. The sole means of exit left from our 
court was by a little door, through which we could pass only one 
by one. In a word, our convent was turned into a fortress, gar- 
risoned by twenty-four brave men. When we were ordered out, 
the guard had already been placed. I begged leave to remain, fear- 
ing to leave our convent to the mercy of a lot of soldiers. Besides, 
I had to furnish them with food for both their mouths and their 
muskets. Three of the sisters stayed with me, but I confess I was 
deeply troubled when I found that they had removed the Holy 
Sacrament, and that we were left without it. Sister Ursule, one 
of the Sisters, wept bitterly, and refused all consolation. I had to 
submit, however, to the deprivation — the greatest which could be 
imposed. Our community and that of the Hospitalieres were ac- 
commodated in the building of the Jesuit Fathers, whose Superior 
assigned us apartments quite separate from the main lodging 
house. We had quarters in the Logis de la Congregation. To 
the Hospitalieres was assigned another building near by, name- 
ly, the carpenter shop. The Jesuit property is surrounded by a 
strong wall, and therefore we are secure. The Christian Indians 
v/ere allowed to build their cabins in the yard. As soon as the peo- 
ple saw us quit our convent, which was a building comparatively 
safe and strong— much more so than the Hospital, which from its 
situation is more exposed to the Iroquois attack — they were ter- 
rified, looking upon our removal as an admission that all was lost. 
In a panic they left their houses and fled — some to the fort, others 
to the Jesuit college, the Bishop's palace, and some even to our 



QUEBEC ON GUARD. 



355 



convent, where were harbored six or seven families, some in our 
servants' rooms, others in one of our parlors, and in the public 
offices. The rest barricaded themselves as best they could in the 
lower town, where guards were posted for their further protec- 
tion. On the morrow, which was the Thursday of Pentecost, the 
Reverend Superior conducted our sisters and their charge back to 
the convent. We should have chosen a Alother Superior on that 
very day had these troubles not compelled us to postpone the 
election ; and this same routine continued for eight days, the nuns 
leaving the convent every evening and returning on the following 
morning at six o'clock. But we were bereft of our Holy Sacra- 
ment until the day of the Fete Dieu. On the 8th day of the 
month the army of the Iroquois was reported as being near. In 
fact it had been seen. In less than half an hour everyone was at 
his post, and all our doors again barricaded, and I served out to 
each of the soldiers all he needed. Just then one of our people, 
who had been fishing, assured us that he had actually seen a canoe 
with eight men erect in it, coming from the Iroquois haunt at the 
Chaudiere Falls. This news confirmed the private rumors, but 
happily both proved false." 

There was, in point of fact, an expedition consisting of some 
one hundred Iroquois on its way to ravage the St. Lawrence coun- 
try, but it was checked and diverted from its purpose by the heroic 
act and self-sacrifice of Dollard and his little band of immortals, 
who devoted themselves to death in order to save the colony. 

The advantage was not always on one side, and Quebeckers 
could witness, if they would, many an act of cruel vengeance 
on their foes. On May the 3rd eight Iroquois in a canoe, who 
were carrying off Madame Picart, whom they had captured with 
her four children at St. Anne, and wounded to death, were sur- 
prised in the attempt to land at Point Levis. Three were drown- 
ed ; the remaining five were taken prisoners ; of these, three were 
burnt in Quebec, one was saved for the amusement of Three 
Rivers, and the hfe of one was spared. The Jesuit Fathers ex- 
erted themselves to stay these barbarities, but to have actually for- 
bidden them would have danoferously weakened tlirir infliuMice 
over their Indian converts. Wlicn possil)lc thcv ransomed the 



356 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



prisoners. This they succeeded in doing in the case of an Iroquois 
girl of twelve, whom they bought with strings of beads, and thus 
saved from death ; for in the warfare of the tribes neither sex nor 
age afforded protection. 

In June the news of ex-Governor d'Aillebout's death reached 
Quebec. He died in Montreal, where his remains still lie. As 
Maisonneuve's lieutenant he was always more closely related to the 
struggling religious community of Montreal than to the trading 
post of Quebec; and in Montreal, therefore, his ashes rightly re- 
pose. All the French governors of Canada who died in office — and 
there were many — were buried in Quebec. Champlain's remains 
occupy an unknown grave. Chevalier de Mezy died in office, and 
was buried in the cemetery of the Hotel Dieu in Quebec, where not 
even a headstone marks the spot. Frontenac (1698), his successor 
De Callieres, (1703), and de Callieres' successor, Philip de Ri- 
gault (1725), the Marquis de Vaudreuil, all died when Viceroys, 
and were buried in the Church of the Recollets in Quebec. Jacques 
Pierre de Taffanel, Marquis de la Jonquiere, laid down the cares 
of office in February, 1752, to die in May of the same year. He 
too was buried in the Church of the Recollets. The bodies of 
these five viceroys were transferred, on the destruction of the 
Recollet Church, to the Cathedral, where a tablet only has been 
erected to their memory, though several of them certainly merit 
more distinguished commemoration. 

The Spring ships arrived with news of the new treaty of com- 
merce made by M. de Becancour; but of what avail were more 
favorable conditions, when trade was almost at a standstill ; when 
the Lake Indian could only approach the St. Lawrence with his 
beaver skins at the risk of his life ; and when every house was 
an improvised fortress ? The colony had been saved for that sum- 
mer from further raids by the heroism of Dollard, though small 
bands of Iroquois still prowled about, capturing French and 
Indians. The comparative security prevailing permitted the West- 
ern Indians to descend. Le Groseillier, of Lake Superior, brought 
down sixty canoes full of skins, worth 200,000 livres, of which 
Montreal traders bought one-fourth; the balance was sold in 
Three Rivers. The party took back two Jesuits and seven lay- 



DESPERATE STATE OF THE COLONY. 



357 



men, but at Montreal they insisted on landing Father Albanel. 

As a comment on the false colonial policy which had been 
pursued, the same ship which brought out the new commercial 
treaty was hurried back to France for a load of flour. The colony 
had now been over half a century in existence, and was not even 
yet self-supporting in the matter of food supplies. This 
scarcity, according to d'Argenson, was due to the disturbed 
condition of the country, and to a dread that the Iroquois 
would prevent the garnering of the harvest, if sowed. According 
to the census then taken, the population of the country around 
Quebec numbered nearly thrice that of the town itself ; in normal 
times, therefore, this farming population should have produced a 
large surplus of cereals over what was needed for the consumption 
of a town of 547 souls. What crops there were the poor farmers 
were permitted to gather in peace this autumn, for d'Argenson had 
arrested four Iroquois, who had come to him under pretence of 
being ambassadors, and the Montrealers had arrested eleven more 
of the same band, who were awaiting there the news of their dele- 
gates' mission. Fearing that extreme measures might be taken 
against the prisoners, the Iroquois refrained from further atroci- 
ties. But the lull was short, for in 1661 the Iroquois first appeared 
at Tadousac, where they dealt so decisive a blow that that outpost 
was abandoned. The same band then ascended the river, and on the 
i8th of June struck terror into the whole district of Quebec by 
eight murders on the north shore and seven on the Island 
of Orleans. On the 22nd, de Lauzon's son, the seneschal, with his 
men, were waylaid when hastening to warn his brother-in-law, 
TEspine, who was shooting, of his danger, and all were killed. 
L'Espine found the bodies and brought news of the disaster to 
Quebec on the 24th. The Iroquois were too prudent to attack the 
town itself, but, as they ascended the river, victim after victim 
sank under their stroke, or, worse still, fell into their hands alive. 
At last from twenty-five to thirty Christian captives were thus at 
their mercy. 

♦This census gives to Beauprc 513 Riviere St. Charles, . . 112 

Reauport 185 Quebec 547 

Cote St. Jean. 153 

••Cillery 145 1,675 



358 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



When the state of the colony seemed hopeless, there appeared 
a deputation of Onondagas and Cayugas, pleading for peace, with 
an exchange of prisoners and for the return of the black robe. 
The Governor called an assembly of the citizens of Quebec. The 
sincerity of the redskins might well be doubted, but they were 
willing to release four Frenchmen, whom they had brought with 
them, and to restore ten more, if the eight Iroquois captives were 
liberated. There could be but one response. There were not as 
many men capable of bearing arms in the colony as there were 
Iroquois warriors, so that an ofifensive policy was impos- 
sible. The eight Iroquois were released, and the four Frenchmen 
restored to their homes. Then that undaunted hero, Father Le 
Moyne, exposed himself to a martyr's fate by going for the fifth 
time on a self-imposed mission to the Iroquois. As a result, the 
nine Frenchmen in the hands of the Onondagas were released at 
once, and a promise given that the others would be sent back in the 
following spring. Those who survived reached Montreal in Au- 
gust, 1662. Encouraging though they seemed, these exchanges of 
courtesy and of prisoners did not stay the war. The released 
Frenchmen and their escorts met on the way a prisoner in the 
hands of a band of savages, who were exulting over the murder of 
Mons. de Maistre, one of the priests of St. Sulpice ; two months 
afterwards another priest of that order, Mons. Vignal, fell a vic- 
tim to Mohawk ferocity. The lower St. Lawrence was troubled 
with apprehension only, being exempt from actual attack dur- 
ing the autumn of 1661, and also the summer of 1662, when the 
Iroquois were harrowing the Algonquin tribes to the north and 
south of the upper river. 

The arrival of the ships in 1661 was late. It was the 
third of August before a boat from Perce, having on board the 
Abbe Queylus and others, brought news that a new Governor to 
succeed d'Argenson, Mons. d'Avaugour, was close at hand. It 
was a poor consolation to welcome merely a governor and his 
secretary, when what all were praying for was an army to drive 
back the Iroquois, and carry the war into the enemy's territory. 
D'Argenson done as well perhaps as could be expected. He had 
more than once exposed his own person to risk of capture ; and 



d'avaugour succeeds d'argenson as governor. 359 

his plaint to the home government as to his helplessness, with an 
empty treasury and empty barracks, while hostile barbarians were 
scouring the country, is very pitiful. Though not a great captain 
or a profound politician, he was a man of sufficient observation 
and common sense to form an accurate opinion as to what the 
colony needed in its governor. Writing to his brother, the year 
before his recall, on the subject of his successor, he urges him to 
use his influence and "to do his best to induce the Company to 
choose a person who should possess, besides real piety, great de- 
cision of character and vigorous health. Another qualification, 
which is absolutely necessary," he says, "is that he be a man of 
such rank that no one can despise him by reason of his birth, and 
so rich that no one can accuse him of coming out to Canada to 
make his fortune. A mere suspicion of selfish motives would 
counteract all the good he might attempt to do." He himself, 
during his administration, did really more fighting with the Bishop 
than with the Iroquois, and the record of his administration is one 
of dire distress, humiliating disasters inflicted by a savage foe, and 
petty domestic skirmishes, which he had neither tact to avoid nor 
the skill to win. 



CHAPTER XVIIL 



Governor d^Avaugour's Administration — The Earth- 
quake of 1663* 

The new Gorernor did not enter on the performance of his 
functions till d'Argenson sailed in September, occupying the in- 
terval with travel and study of the country and its conditions, and 
of the elements that would aid or oppose him in his official 
capacity. The situation on the whole was not encouraging. A 
triangular fight was in progress between the Governor, Father 
Queylus, and the Bishop; and it was clear that the Bishop was 
getting the best of it with both his opponents. It became a 
serious question how long the Bishop and he would remain on 
good terms. The quarrel over the brandy question had broken 
out, and the Bishop's views were so extreme that in October he 
had three men shot for selling it to the aborigines. In the eyes 
of the new Governor such rigor was excessive. As to the country 
itself, it impressed him most favorably, and he gave glowing ac- 
counts of it in his despatches. Had he examined conditions, how- 
ever, with a more practical and statesmanlike eye, he would not 
have postponed an appeal for help until writing his second de- 
spatch; for a month's experience should have been more than 
sufficient to satisfy him that the colony was in dire straits, and 
that, unless the Crown of France assumed the cost and respon- 
sibility of defending it, there was nothing to look forward to save 
annihilation. Nor would it have required a very large army to 
subdue the Five Nations just then. They had been weakened by 
continual warfare, in which, though successful, their numbers had 
been gradually reduced, and they had not yet recruited their 



d'avaugour's dream of conquest. 



losses by absorption. The Relation of 1660 computes their fight- 



ing strength as follows : 

Mohawks 500 

Oneidas 100 

Onondagas 300 

Cayugas 300 

Senecas 1,000 



Making a total of 2,200 

Grenlaugh estimates their forces, in 1677, as — 

Mohawks 300 

Oneidas 200 

Onondagas 350 

Cayugas 300 

Senecas 1,000 



Total 2,150 



The Senecas had taken only a subordinate part in the wars 
with the French and their allies, and had consequently suffered the 
least. The Tuscaroras were not incorporated as a sixth nation 
until 1712. The number of Indians inhabiting the continent at the 
time of the advent of the whites is unquestionably exaggerated in 
popular estimation. So far as any data exist, the members of the 
Huron and Algonquin tribes adjacent to the St. Lawrence, who 
were allies to the French, were even less numerous than those of 
the Five Nations, while, as war material, they were of course 
vastly inferior. 

D'Avaugour, however, was neither a careful observer nor 
a sensible adviser, to judge by his last despatch, published 
in the Collection of Manuscripts, Vol. I, page 155. It is 
such an incredibly senseless document, and so expressive of the 
unfitness of the men chosen by the Company, and confirmed by 
the Crown, as Governors of New France, that it is worth copying 
in full : 

"Monseigneur — My first despatch describes the length and 
breadth of the great river St. Lawrence : My second was upon the 



362 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



necessity of fortifying the city of Quebec: In the third I present 
the unwisdom of ceding the colony of Plaisance in Newfoundland 
and Gaspe, and now, Monsieur, I venture to propose to you a 
project for the conquest of the two towns inhabited by the Eng- 
lish and Dutch, thus making the King master of the continent and 
its people. These people, who are all heretics of the Reformed 
Religion, so-called, live under a kind of liberty, and have Gover- 
nors over them only at intervals. They are very rich, through 
enjoying the fishing and trafficking with the Indians. 

*Tf His Majesty would only capture these towns, he would be 
ruler of the finest portions of America, for the winters are not as 
cold as in Canada. Only four large war vessels, with 4,000 men, 
are required. My hope is that His Majesty will put me in com- 
mand. If he does, I will reduce the towns of Boston and Manhat- 
tan between the months of May and July, and return by Albany, 
leaving garrisons in all the towns to hold the people in sub- 
jection." 

This bold project, to conquer with 4,000 men the 40,000 report- 
ed some years before by Druillettes as composing the fighting 
population of New England, not to mention the Dutch of the 
Hudson, was signed on September 2nd, 1663, just a fortnight 
before — as the result of his misunderstanding with the Bishop — 
the Governor was replaced by de Mezy. Whether the valiant 
Governor's despatch had much influence at Versailles may be 
doubted, for facts, only too well known in France, spoke for 
themselves. The Relations of the Jesuits had for years past 
described the forlorn condition of the French inhabitants, 
scattered in little villages along the banks of the river for over 
200 miles, and of the larger but still insignificant groups, 
organized as towns, with a population of less than 3,000 
souls ; never sowing a crop with any certainty of being allowed to 
garner it, or so much as issuing from their homes with any sense 
of security for their lives. Had they all been men, they might 
have left their homesteads and attacked the Iroquois, but they 
dare not desert their women and children. Year after year, more- 
over, the Superior of the Jesuits had sent one priest and another 
to plead in France for their flocks. Father Le Jeune had gone 



AN APPEAL TO THE KING. 



himself on this mission in the autumn of 1660. And now, in 
1661, the people despatched a delegation to urge their cause. 
They and the new Governor selected a good advocate in the per- 
son of Mons. Boucher, commandant of Three Rivers. He had 
lived thirty years in the colony, and his visit to France 
was opportunely timed. Mazarin, who had been too busy 
in maintaining his own dubious position to give much 
care to the condition of the colony, had passed away more than a 
year previously, and the young King, Louis XI\\, was begi-nning 
to practice the theory of kingcraft which his father's great 
minister had inculcated — to be a king in deed as well as in 
name. He therefore heard with interest, and questioned with 
intelligence, the sturdy colonist, who, if not versed in court 
etiquette, possessed, after the manner of frontiersmen, the 
higher qualities of the true gentleman — stern honesty and modest 
courage. The monarch in response promised to send a regiment 
of soldiers to drive back the Iroquois, and a contingent of settlers 
to recruit the depleted population; better still, he decided to cancel 
the charter of the commercial company, and to take over the gov- 
ernment himself. The time was ripe for a successful forward 
movement, if France had been alive to the value of her colony, 
and willing to brace herself for the effort necessary to secure its 
present safety and its future development. Cromwell's vigorous 
colonial policy had been closed by his premature death — a policy 
which had cost Spain some of her most cherished West Indian 
Islands, and France the Colony of Acadia. Louis XIV. might re- 
peat the Protector's colonial achievements, for Cromwell's succes- 
sor in England was not a man to oppose him vigorously. More- 
over, Charles II. was parting with the only minister, Shaftesbury, 
who would have been a match for Louis' adviser in all marine 
and colonial matters, Colbert, had a struggle arisen at that time. 

In order to obtain independent information, Louis XIV. sent a 
special commissioner to Canada, the Sieur Dumont, and, as a 
pledge of his interest. (k\«^patched with him two shiploads 
of immigrants, who arrived October 27th. Dumont, judging 
Montreal to be the most needy and also the most important 
outpost of the colony, carried his colonists thither. The population 



364 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



of Montreal must indeed have been reduced to a low point, 
for, even with this large addition and subsequent increments, 
the inhabitants in 1666 numbered only 625. Of seventeen 
deaths in Montreal in 1661, fourteen were at the hands of the Iro- 
quois. The population of Montreal was in fact being rapidly ex- 
terminated when the contingent under Dumont arrived to recruit 
its numbers and its courage. Apart from its claims as a religious 
outpost of the Church, it was, from both a military and a 
mercantile point of view, of cardinal importance. Montmagny 
and subsequent Governors, with their feeble forces, judged it 
unwise to attempt to defend the upper river; but, had their 
military resources been sufficient, they would doubtless have made 
of Montreal a barrier for the defence of the population and trade 
of the lower river by establishing there a fortress of sufficient 
strength with an adequate garrison. As it was, Montreal pro- 
tected Three Rivers and Quebec simply by satiating the appetites 
of the Iroquois, who so harassed the unfortunate inhabitants as to 
reduce them to famine and despair during the years 1662 and 
1663. The people of Quebec did not suflfer till the latter 
year from actual attack, but the town was in an agony of suspense 
and anxiety, as news of one disaster after another was brought by 
white messengers from Montreal, not to speak of reports, true 
and false, brought by the Indians, of marauding bands setting out 
from the Iroquois country. There was dreadful apprehension for 
the safety of Father Le Moyne and the French captives among the 
Onondagas, and these fears were heightened by the appearance of 
seven canoes of Iroquois braves on the loth of September, who 
paddled past the city and killed two Frenchmen on the Island of 
Orleans. Nevertheless, though war was in progress, the hostiles 
were true to their promise, and on the 15th of September Father 
Le Moyne appeared with the released captives, to the infinite joy 
of the inhabitants. 

It was an exciting summer, for the Iroquois band after killing 
two Frenchmen fell on a Huron family on the Island of Orleans, 
after which they hurried down the river, and murdered more 
Frenchmen near Tadousac. Returning, they flaunted their con- 
tempt for the French by firing on some Huron canoes immediately 



A MONASTERY SCANDAL. 



in front of the town. As if these troubles were not enoug-h, there 
was dissension among the French themselves. Following close 
in the wake of Father Le Moyne's canoe came Mons. Le Ber's 
boat from Montreal with Mons. de Maisonneuve on board, bound 
for France to make another appeal for help. Immediately on 
landing, Mons. Le Ber was arrested as an accomplice in some 
real or suspected conspiracy, and his goods were confiscated. 
What the act was with which he was charged, or against whom 
the conspiracy was aimed, the records do not give the faintest 
hint. The fact is simply stated in the Journal des Jcsuites^ which 
further mentions that, as a consequence, Mons. de Maisonneuve 
changed his plans and returned to Montreal. The Governors 
were, in fact. Governors of Quebec, rather than Governors of 
the Colony, and had always shown jealousy of the growing im- 
portance of the struggling town at the mouth of the Ottawa. De 
Lauzon had, during his tenure of office, cancelled Maisonneuve's 
right to his warehouse in Quebec, and possibly this interference 
with the plans and movements of the Montreal Governor may 
have been simply another instance of the exercise of arbitrary 
power instigated by jealousy. 

The Bishop had excommunicated all who were engaged in 
the traffic, and had sailed for France to lay before the King a 
formal complaint against the Governor, and defend his own posi- 
tion. During his absence the Jesuits did their best to 
continue his policy. But while the good Fathers were willing to 
use all the powers of the Church and of the State to check the 
demoralization of their converts through the use of ardent spirits, 
they were by no means total abstainers themselves, or advocates 
of it. Just then, indeed, a little occurrence within their own 
doors showed what accidents may happen in the best regulated 
communities. It was their custom to give their choristers 
beer, and at Christmas time they supplemented it with a 
flask of wine. That might not have done much harm, but the 
chief warden, without their knowledge, duplicated the dose, which 
proved too much for the youngsters. That such a catastrophe, 
which it was impossible to conceal, should have happened at a 
moment when they were thundering excommunications against all 



366 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



persons, high or low, guilty of selling drink to the savages, was, 
to say the least, embarrassing, and must have exposed the rev- 
erend gentlemen to not a little irreverent chaff. 

Unfortunately other crimes as well were rife. La Badande's house 
was rifled by thieves, and then burnt to conceal the robbery ; but 
the criminal, one Larose, was speedily apprehended and hanged. 
Other thieves were caught after this, but so lax had become the 
standard of civil authority, or so antagonistic the attitude of the 
civil officials towards the reverend conservators of public morals, 
that no convictions could be secured. The Fathers were in despair, 
vvhen the whole country was suddenly frightened into a sense of 
its wickedness by the most violent earthquake on record in Can- 
ada. The foci of greatest disturbance w^ere then, as subsequently, 
at or near Baie St. Paul, where a little hill is described as toppling 
into the river, and then, through the elevation of the land, re- 
appearing as an island. Quebec, near the center of the move- 
ment, felt the shocks acutely. Father Lalemant describes the 
movement as less violent in elevated localities than in low-lying 
ones ; it is probable, therefore, that the shores of the St. Law- 
rence and the lower town were more violently shaken than the 
upper town. 

There had been premonitions for months previously of an im- 
pending convulsion, aerial voices, fiery serpents flying through the 
air, magnificent double suns, and a solar eclipse with other natural 
and some most abnormal phenomena — all interpreted afterwards 
as supernatural warnings. All passed unheeded, however, until 
half-past five on Shrove Monday, 1663, when the people were pre- 
paring for the feasting and revelry of Shrove Tuesday. Suddenly 
there was a noise as of a furious conflagration, followed by a rock- 
ing motion, which overturned household articles, cracked walls 
from cellar to roof, threw down chimneys, crushed the ice on the 
river, shivering it into splinters, and terrified the whole population 
into such an access of piety that ''Shrove Tuesday was happily 
converted into Good Friday," to use the Jesuit description, and the 
rush to the confessionals kept the priests busy the whole night. But 
the reformation was shortlived, as Father Lalemant is willing to 
confess in his letter to the General of the Order, which was not in- 



A MEMORABLE EARTHQUAKE. 



tended for publication. "The whole region," he says, "was shaken 
at one and the same time by a violent earthquake on the 5th day of 
February. It was not continuous, but intermittent — now more, 
now less violent. There was a wonderful commotion of men's 
minds at the start, producing conversions, both among the French 
and the natives ; but these were so transitory that an increase, 
rather than a decrease, of the scourge was deserved by many. 
However, no notable loss was felt, if you except the loss of some 
chimneys, which immunity is rightly attributed to the special favor 
of God. These things seem proper to be written to you fraternally 
in this my private letter. I send another — a public one — with 
matters more fully considered as regards our plans about combat- 
ing future wants." — Thwaite's Jesuit Relations 47, page 255. 

In fact, despite the consternation with which the phenomena 
were viewed, and the exaggeration with which they were 
described, this earthquake was probably not much more violent 
than many that have occurred since, but which, from familiarity, 
create little or no terror. There had been slight shocks in 1661, 
but this was the first occasion when the new settlers experienced 
the horrible sensation of cosmic instability which results from the 
discovery that the solid earth is really elastic, and that the ever- 
lasting hills themselves may shake and tremble. Physical fear was 
intensified by superstitious terror and belief in the interference of 
supernatural and malevolent agencies. Mere Marie de I'lncarna- 
tion expressed the current opinion when she tells us that "the 
devils undoubtedly mix themselves up with natural occurrences." 
As always happens, the further removed the phenomena were 
from the actual observation of the narrators, the more extra- 
ordinary they were described as being. At Three Rivers, when 
the rocks were cracking and actually disappearing, a horrid, 
shapeless and monstrous specter was seen crossing from east to 
west along the edge of the moat constructed for the military de- 
fence of the town. At Montreal the terror was less, because, as 
the Church declared, the consciences of .the pious people there 
were not disturbed on account of their sins — more probably he- 
cause, owing to the greater distance from the center of dis- 
turbance, the shocks were less violent. The duration of the 



368 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

disturbances was prolonged into August, by which time the 
compunction for sins had grown fainter than even the expiring 
throes of the troubled earth. 

Towards the end of May the community was startled by news 
of the burning of the Sieur de Beaulieu's house on the Island, and 
the discovery of the remains of the master and his valet in the 
ruins. It was not long before the supposed accident was suspected 
to be a crime, and circumstances pointed to another servant of the 
deceased as the probable culprit. He was arrested, and the criminal, 
after being tortured on the public scaffold, was shot. The public 
hangman was not idle, for next month a fugitive from justice from 
Tadousac was arrested, and hanged on the following day. A few 
brighter incidents, however, are recorded. An English bark 
brought in seven Frenchmen, rescued from the Iroquois. It was 
probably a ship sailing from New Amsterdam which was glad to 
carry this Hving cargo as an excuse for trading within pro- 
hibited limits on the St. Lawrence. Then there returned 
from the Ottawa country all but two of the little band so 
recklessly allowed to go thither three years before, when the 
colony was in the direst straits for men. The 150 Indians who 
accompanied them brought down in thirty-eight canoes a good 
stock of beaver skins — a most welcome consignment when nearly 
all the avenues of trade were blocked by the Iroquois. 
Whether the Fathers of the Society of Jesus had a lien on 
these skins is not expressly stated, but Father Lalemant assures 
us that the Society's outlay on the expedition exceeded the value of 
the skins by 800 livres. It was, in truth, not without heavy outlay 
that the Jesuit mission was maintained, and therefore not without 
good reason that the Franciscan Recollets, with their stringent 
vows of poverty, had been forced to resign this missionary field to 
the more opulent order. The Jesuits were fulfilling their duty as 
hosts to the Indians in the most generous manner. In the previous 
winter, in addition to the destitute Hurons who had sought the 
protection of the fort, there had congregated in and about Quebec 
between 300 and 400 Algonquins from Sillery, Nova Scotia, and 
Tadousac, fleeing from forest, lake and river — haunted by the 
specter of the dreaded Iroquois. The Indian population of the 



QUEBEC AND MONTREAL. 369 

town was therefore well nigh as numerous as the white, for before 
winter set in the shifting, seafaring class had vanished. 

The support of this concourse of helpless savagery devolved 
necessarily on the Society. There was no money in the public treas- 
ury for their relief. The Company was bankrupt, even if its agents 
had been willing to help ; and the people were poor. The Society 
of Jesus was therefore alone in a position to protect the fugitives 
from starvation. 

What wonder that the Algonquin tribes yielded so gener- 
ally to the sweet influences of charity, and adopted a form of 
Christianity, which not only gratified their senses with its pic- 
turesque and significant ritual, but gave them wherewithal to be 
fed and clothed? Though the town was exempt from some 
of the disastrous results which to-day attend the close contact of 
the aboriginal races with immigrant Anglo-Saxons, nevertheless 
the existence of a certain amount of immorality and even crime, 
arising from such intercourse, had to be admitted. The adherents 
of the Bishop attributed the vice entirely to the baneful influence 
of brandy ; but it was in part, without doubt, due to the laxity of 
Indian habits and the easy morals of a large section of the un- 
married French, who were already acquiring too great a fondness 
for Indian ways in other matters than mere forest roving. 

The contrast between the exemplary piety of the Montreal col- 
onists and the greater license of the port of Quebec was not wholly 
due to the strict rule of Maisonneuve and the stern religious and 
municipal influence of the Sulpicians at Ville-Marie. The two 
towns were very differently situated, and to maintain order in 
Quebec must have taxed the energies of the Bishop and his secular 
clergy with all the aid the Jesuits could render. During the busy 
season of navigation the influx of reckless sailors had a most de- 
moralizing effect, and during the idle time there was great tempta- 
tion for the men to amuse themselves with the Indians in a way 
which the Church could not commend. These unfavorable condi- 
tions did not exist in the sister town to anything like the same 
extent ; and there was little therefore to counteract the influence 
of a pious clergy and of civil leaders who were themselves reli- 
gious devotees. 



370 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



Meanwhile great changes were taking place. Canada had 

ceased to be governed by a trading company, and had become a 

Crown Colony.* 

* The Indian population of the Eastern Provinces has probably not very much 
decreased between the 17th century and to-day. The census of the existing 
Indian population of the Province of Quebec, as given in Roy's Bulletin, March, 
1 90 1, is as follows : 

Becancour Abenaki Reservation 49 

St. Pierre du Lac Abenaki Reservation 374 

Maniwaki Algonquin 396 

Temiscamingue .Algonquin 190 

Viger-Temiscouata Amalicites iii 

Hurons at Lorette Quarante Arpents and Portneuf 449 

Charlesbourg Amalicites , 34 

County of Quebec Abenakis 19 

Saint Urbain Abenakis 23 

Caughnawagha Iroquois i»995 

St. Regis Iroquois IjSS? 

Oka Iroquois 1,130 

Maria (Baie des Chaleurs) Micmacs 86 

Restigouche Micmacs (under Capouchins) 541 

Escoumains Montagnais 35 

Bersimis Montagnais 45 1 

There are, therefore, of Algonquin origin in the Province of Quebec, 1,300; 
of Iroquois converts of the Jesuits, drawn from the Five Nations, 4^462 ; and of 
Hurons, 449. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



The Dissolution of the Company of One Hundred 
Associates and the Assumption of the 
Government by France. 

The Company of the One Hundred Associates, after a feeble 
existence of thirty years, died in the year 1663. Organized by 
RicheHeu, it was hailed at the time of its creation as a practical 
refutation of the contention that commercial activity was only to 
be found in association with the theology of the Reformation and 
advanced political views. The history of the Company certainly 
established the negative fact that being a good Catholic did not 
necessarily make a Frenchman a good business man. It also 
brought out the irreconcilable antagonism between the service of 
God and the service of Mammon, as illustrated by the exploiting 
of a territory for purposes of gain by men working under a charter 
which bound them to make the conversion of the natives to 
Christianity their chief concern. The commercial company failed 
to make money, and failed to govern the country successfully. 
Its headquarters were in Paris. The scene of its operations was 
three thousand miles away. Half a year must elapse before in- 
structions followed the report of events. The constitution of the 
Company required that the head of the corporation should reside 
in France, and yet a free hand had of necessity to be given to, 
or at any rate assumed by, the local authorities, more especially as 
the people were debarred from all active participation in their 
own government. Every opportunity was thus afforded to the 
local commercial agents of the Company, as well as to the Govern- 
ment officials, for furthering their private ends at the expense of 
the corporation and the country which employed them. Even had 
the Company not been virtually bankrupt wlien it was launched 
on its career, its ultimate failure was almost inevitable. Till its 
charter was modified in 1645 ^ ^^ss extent subsequently, it 



372 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

was burdened with the care and expense of a system of colonial 
government not of its own devising. It was taxed to support a 
church whose ministers actively opposed — both in France and in 
the colony itself — its commercial policy. As a monopoly it was 
hated by the whole population, which thought it no sin 
to engage in illicit trade. The articles which it could export 
were few in number, and the furs which composed its most 
valuable resource were poached upon by foreign vessels in 
the gulf, and by the Dutch and English landward. It was carry- 
ing on its operations in northern seas, and upon a river where the 
risks of navigation are to this day considered extra hazardous — 
and all this during troublous times, when war was almost con- 
tinuous, and when peace, if dependence were placed on it, might 
prove more dangerous to commerce than war itself. 

The one hundred charter members had been reduced by death 
and debts to thirty-six, the resources of those who remained 
were greatly impaired, and things generally had been brought to 
so desperate a pass, that in 1660 the Company sent Peronne du 
Mesnil to investigate its affairs. He brought suit against all the 
local officials, but Mons. Gaudais, the Commissioner sent out in 
1663 to take over possession of New France on behalf of the 
Crown, dismissed the several actions.* 

On the 24th of February, 1663, the Company resigned its 
charter, and the King accepted the charge, with somewhat un- 
gracious reflections on the shortcomings of the One Hundred 
Associates, which, had he been able to look forward to his own 
ill success as an administrator, he would have had some hesitation 
in making. Bishop Laval was at court at the time with his budget 
of charges against Governor d'Avaugour. Mazarin was dying; 
and Colbert was entering on power, impatient to rival his pre- 
decessor, the great Cardinal, as a colonial minister. The Bishop, 
having easily triumphed over d'Avaugour, returned to his 
diocese with a new Governor and a new constitution. The history 
of New France as a Crown Colony thus began in 1663. 

The first adminstration under the new constitution, if that 

* Mons. Sebastien Cramoisy, the famous printer of the Relations, was one of 
the incorporators. 



THE CONSTITUTION OF 1663. 



373 



can be called a constitution which gave no effectual representation 
to the rights of the people, was that of the Chevalier de Mezy. 
Though de ^^lezy's short rule was politically of small ac- 
count, it was distinguished by a bitter quarrel between himself 
and his friend, the Bishop, over the liquor traffic and the imposi- 
tion of tithes. The controversy reached such a pitch that the 
Bishop excommunicated the Governor, receiving him back into the 
Church only on his recanting his errors, just before his death. The 
quarrel convulsed the whole community. But the King, instead 
of seeking a corrective in some measure of moderate popular 
control, riveted new trammels of officialism on the submissive 
colonists, and increased the already excessive power of the 
Church. For, to replace the unfortunate de Mezy, there came out 
to govern the struggling and straggling population of 2,500 
Frenchmen, scattered over the vast territory from Acadia to Lake 
Superior, a Lieutenant-General, representing His Majesty, a 
Governor, and an Intendant. So attenuated was the population 
that the very first decree of the King, as colonial ruler, was to 
cancel the title to all uncultivated lands, in the hopeless endeavor 
to concentrate the population and thus render it easier for them 
to defend themselves against the Iroquois. The plan, however, 
was impracticable and, though the order to enforce it was re- 
peated, it seems not to have been carried out, even tentatively.* 
To return to the constitution. The edict of Louis XIV. of 
April, 1663, constituted a Sovereign Council in imitation of the 
Council of State of the parent kingdom. It was to sit and deliber- 
ate in Quebec, unless the King ordered otherwise. Its members 
were to be de Mezy, as Governor for the time being, representing 
the King; Bishop Laval, or the principal ecclesiastic, whoever he 
might be, as representative of the Bishop; five councillors, to be 
chosen for one year by the Governor and the Bishop ; and a pro- 
ciireur, empowered to administer oaths. The council was author- 
ized to take cognizance of all cases, civil and criminal, following 
as nearly as possible the procedure of the Parliament of Paris. 
The King, however, reserved to himself the right of changing or 

* Talon's Three Bourgs, near Quebec, were laid out as experimental defensive 
villages. 



374 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



abrogating laws and ordinances at his good pleasure. The Coun- 
cil, besides being the highest court of appeal, was empowered to 
supervise the pubHc finances, pass laws for the regulation of the 
traffic in furs with the Indians, as well as of interstate trade and 
commerce; to create and control a police force for the whole 
colony; and to establish courts and appoint judges of the first in- 
stance for the districts of Quebec, Three Rivers and Montreal.* 

The nomination of the first secretary of Council was vested in 
the Governor and the Bishop. The five councillors, though not 
elected by the people, were charged to keep themselves in touch 
with the people, and with popular needs, as brought to their notice 
by the syndics of the urban and village communities. 

The new constitution possessed even less of a popular charac- 
ter than the provisional decree of 1647. 1^ ga-ve co-ordinate au- 
thority to ecclesiastical and civil chiefs, and became thus the source 
of endless confusion. It excluded the people from that faint trace 
of representation which, under the constitution of 1647, ^^ey en- 
joyed through the direct influence of the syndics in its delibera- 
tions. The constitution underwent a slight modification in 1675, 
not in the direction of greater popularization, but of greater cen 
tralization, through the growing influence of the Intendant, whose 
duty, as confidential agent of the Colonial Minister, was to act as 

* Very strange cases came up in appeal before the Council. For instance, 
Louis Gaboury was condemned by the Judge of the Prevoste Court to pay a cow 
and its milk for one year, to be bound to the public post for three hours, and to 
be led to the door of the church of the Island of Orleans, where on his knees, 
with his hands joined and his head bared, he had to ask pardon of God, the 
King and the law for having eaten meat during Lent without permission of the 
Church. In addition he was condemned to pay a penalty of twenty francs, to be 
applied to works of piety and to the cost of defraying the expenses of said parish. 
The sentence was slightly mitigated on appeal to the Sovereign Council. 

According to Ferland, there are on the Sovereign Council only three or four 
suits against persons accused of sacrilege. In 1669 two soldiers were accused of 
carrying about their persons symbols accounted to be magical, and of having used 
them for improper purposes. They were condemned to pay a fine and to suffer 
imprisonment, the Council further decreeing that they should be taught the error 
of their ways — a decidedly milder course than putting them to death, which would 
at one time have been done in New England. An interesting case is quoted by 
Chauveau in his Memoir on the Sovereign Council : the wife of Jacques Fournier 
was accused of irreverence in printing a petition to Frontenac against the procureur 
of the Jesuits, couched in burlesque language, partly in prose and partly in verse. 
The Governor enjoyed the joke and replied in the same strain, but this did not 
protect her from prosecution and fine; though, at the intercession of the Governor, 
the fine was turned over to her children. 



CREATION OF THE WEST INDIA COMPANY. 



375 



a check on the Governor, in case the latter might be inchned to 
yield to local influences. In 1675, the King, after preluding his 
edict by announcing the abolition of the Company of the West 
Indies, and the entire and absolute assumption of the government 
by himself, added to the number of councillors designated by the 
Edict of 1663, the Intendant and two additional members, 
assigning to the Intendant the third place in the council chamber, 
and appointing him its President. Duchesneau was the In- 
tendant sent out in that year. The quarrels which then arose as to 
precedence between him and Frontenac were even more acrimoni- 
ous than any between the Governor and the Bishop. This con- 
troversy waxed hottest in 1679- 1680, ^i^^ it was settled that the 
Governor, should receive his full title of Governor and 
Lieutenant-General, but not that of Chief and President of the 
Council ; and Duchesneau that of Intendant of Justice, Police and 
Finance, and that the Intendant, as commanded by His Majesty 
in 1675, should fill the seat and fulfil the function of President of 
the Council. Frontenac had come out as Governor in 1672, when 
Talon was still Intendant. One of his first acts illustrates the con- 
flict between his own ideas of what was good for the colony and 
those of the King. Believing he could popularize the govern- 
ment and advance the interests of the colony by convoking a rep- 
resentative assembly of the clergy, nobility, judiciary and com- 
mons, to discuss public afifairs, after the manner of the States 
General, he summoned such a parliament accordingly, and it met 
in the church of the Jesuits. The Intendant, Talon, with admir- 
able caution, absented himself on the plea of indisposition. He 
had a suspicion that the action of the impulsive Count would not 
meet with the approval of their royal master. He was right, for 
in reply to a dispatch reporting what he had done the Governor 
received something very like a reprimand from the Minister, who 
reminded him that the King had ceased to convoke the Etats 
GenSraux, instructing him at the same time, not only to refuse all 
demands by the people for popular representation, but even to 
suppress the election of all syndics, if that could be done without 
exciting popular commotion. The new constitution was far, 
therefore, from being drawn on popular lines. 



37^ QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

The independent, almost rebellious, bearing of England's col- 
onies towards the mother country offered a warning to Colbert 
and his master, Louis, to keep their own colonies well in check. 
In obedience to this policy a year was spent in framing a consti- 
tution for a Company that, in theory, was to avoid all the errors 
of the preceding ones. In a long preamble the King explained that, 
as the Company of the One Hundred Associates had failed, and 
had consented to the cancellation of its charter, on condition of 
being reimbursed certain of its losses, he declared created the 
Company of the West Indies, which is to absorb the Company of 
the Terra Firma of America, and its fleet, and to be composed of 
shareholders whose operations will embrace the west coast of 
Africa, South America between the Amazon and the Orinoco, 
Acadia, Newfoundland and Canada. The commercial ex- 
ploitation of these regions is only the secondary object of their 
organization ; the first is the Christianization of the native tribes. 
To this end the Company must transport and maintain enough 
priests to convert the Indians to the Catholic Apostolic Roman 
religion, and must also build churches. All the subjects of 
the King, as well as foreigners, might become shareholders, and 
nobles would not lose dignity or privileges by investing in its se- 
curities. The minimum subscription was 3,000 livres. Those 
subscribing 10,000 to 20,000 livres might vote. Those subscribing 
more than 20,000 might be elected to the directorate, and be en- 
titled to the rank of bourgeois in whatever town they lived. For- 
eigners investing the sum of 20,000 francs in the Company would 
be entitled to the right of French citizenship while stockholders, 
and, if they retained their interest for twenty years, might be- 
come Frenchmen without taking out letters of naturalization, and 
their relations would inherit. The head office was to be in Paris, 
and the number of directors nine. The Company was granted 
exclusive privileges of trading within the sphere of its operations, 
and all ships and their cargoes trading illegally within these limits 
were subject lo confiscation. A bounty of 30 livres was promised 
on each ton of merchandise imported into the colonies, and 40 
livres for each ton exported to France in the Company^s ships. 
Goods admitted to France in the Company's ships could be ex- 



MISFORTUNES OF THE COMPANY. 



377 



ported to foreign countries without paying export duty. The 
Company was endowed, hke its predecessor, with all the rights 
and privileges of seigneurs in all new countries which it might 
conquer during the forty years of its charter, as well as over the 
whole vast territory designated above, the King reserving only 
foi et hommage as liege, which the Company must render on the 
succession of each king with a gold crown of the weight of thirty 
marks. But while enjoying seignorial rights the Company might 
deed its land, contrary to the feudal custom in any part of France. 
The Company might work mines without paying the crown any 
royalty, build forts, manufacture implements of war, levy troops 
for defence, and equip vessels of war. The Company might 
nominate Governors for confirmation by the King, and make 
treaties of offence and defence with the kings and princes of the 
colonies — the chiefs of the red and black men. The appointment 
of judges and nomination of the members of the Sovereign Coun- 
cil was vested in the Council subject to confirmation by the King. 
The legal code to be used was the Coutiime de Paris, As an in- 
ducement to the savages to adopt Christianity, their conversion 
would entitle them to French citizenship, and artisans who had 
worked in the colony for ten consecutive years were to be reputed 
Maitres de Chefs d'Oeuvres throughout the kingdom. To assist 
the Company the King lent it, without interest, ten per cent of its 
capital stock. Of many of these privileges the Company never 
availed itself — among others the privilege of nominating the mem- 
bers of the Council ; but their chief clerk occupied a seat in the 
Council next to the Intendant. 

The stock of the Company thus royally patronized was readily 
subscribed, and within six months a fleet of over forty vessels was 
armed and equipped ; but in less than three years the whole capital 
had been absorbed in part payment of previous rights and by 
losses. In November, 1667, the balance due on the islands of 
the Antilles was 620,000 livrcs, and on current account 300,000, 
while the fleet, through the loss of ships at the hands of tlie Eng- 
lish and by accident, had been reduced to thirty-two, the largest 
of which was only of 400 tons burden. Such a protest was raised 
against the monopoly in France, that the King was induced to 



3/8 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



curtail certain of the privileges, but others were accorded in their 
stead. Nevertheless, by 1672 the Company was hopelessly ruined 
and in debt 3,523,000 francs. A commission was then appointed 
to report on its condition, and to advise. The advice was to wind 
up the old concern and to create another company whose opera- 
tions should be restricted to Senegal. The King remitted the loan 
made to the old Company; returned the shareholders the original 
value of their shares; assumed possession of, and absolute do- 
minion over, all the territory which had been covered by the Com- 
pany's trading privileges and administrative control; and threw 
the trade of the Antilles and Canada open to his subjects. This, 
however, was far from meaning free trade in the modern sense. 

Before the West India Company went into bankruptcy, the 
King, who had assumed the government of the Colony, determin- 
ed to make effective, provision for its administration and protec- 
tion. To conquer the Iroquois, he sent out troops under the 
command of Alexandre de Prouville, Marquis de Tracy, who, 
as Lieutenant-General, was to represent him in his South Ameri- 
can, West Indian and Canadian possessions; but it was under- 
stood that he would only hold this pre-eminent office for a short 
period, or until things had quieted down in Canada. Mons. de 
Courcelle was appointed as Governor and Mons. Talon as Intend- 
ant. Talon had won experience and distinction as Intendant of 
Hainaut, and proved to be one of the best administrators ever sent 
to Canada. The Marquis de Tracy had left France the autumn 
previous with four companies of the Carignan-Salieres Regiment, 
but, as his instructions required him to take over Cayenne from 
the Dutch, he visited the West Indies before proceeding to Canada, 
where he landed on June 30th, 1665. The four companies of his 
troops, and others to the total number of 1,200, landed during the 
course of the summer, officered by men who have attached their 
names to Canadian geography, such as Mm. de Saliere, de Repen- 
tigny, de Sorel and de Berthier. One of the first official acts of the 
Lieutenant-General was to have the edict establishing the West 
India Company registered by the Sovereign Council, thus inau- 
gurating the operation of the new Company. The Governor and 



talon's census of 1666. 



379 



Intendant arrived at the seat of their government on the 12th 
September, 1665. 

With the arrival in Quebec of high officials, representing the 
august majesty of Louis XIV., and faintly reflecting the glories 
of his court, accompanied, moreover, by a garrison of from 1,000 
to 1,200 men of the great monarch's army, including four com- 
panies of one of the most distinguished of his regiments, which 
had fought and conquered over all Europe, from Italy to the Ne- 
therlands, and from the Atlantic to the Adriatic ; with the creation 
of the Sovereign Council, modeled after the King's Council of 
State, but exercising in addition the functions of the Parliament 
of Paris ; with the prospect in the near future of the erection of 
the Apostolic Vicarate into the Bishopric of Quebec, and the or- 
ganization of a cathedral chapter ; and with the recent addition of 
a theological seminary to the large college already possessed by 
the Jesuits, Quebec had sprung from the rank of a village to the 
dignity and dimensions of a town. 

Nevertheless, despite all these special advantages, it did not 
prosper commercially or grow in population. Talon gives the 
population of Canada in 1666 as 3,568, distributed as follows : 



Quebec 678 

Beaupre 555 

Beauport 172 

Island of Orleans 471 

St. Jean Frangois, St. Michel 156 

Sillery 217 

Notre Dame des Anges and St. Cliarles... 118 

Cote Lauzon 6 

Montreal 584 

Three Rivers 461 



Total 3418 



In the following year he gives as the population of all New 
France 4,312, of whom 1,566 were capable of hearing arms, 88 
were young men of marriageable age, 55 unmarried girls over 
fourteen years of age. There were 11,174 acres of land under 



380 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

cultivation, and 2,136 horned cattle. Horses were still rare. One 
had been given to Governor Montmagny in 1647, we do not 
read of any others being shipped to Canada till 1665, when twelve 
were brought out by Mons. Bourdon, who had gone to France to 
protest against Governor de Mezy's arbitrary actions. It was 
not Talon's fault that so little progress was made. He believed 
in the possibilities of the country, and pleaded for colonists and 
for funds. But Colbert's reply was not encouraging. The King, 
he said, refused to depopulate France in order to people Canada. 
In truth, if one-fourth of the men he sacrificed, first and last, to 
his insatiate ambition in war could have been induced to emigrate, 
they would have settled the Iroquois question and other still 
larger problems. He did, however, spare some money and men ; 
but so much of his time was spent in deciding trivialities alto- 
gether beyond the reach of his knowledge and experience, that 
he could not help exaggerating to his own mind his efforts 
on behalf of Canada. This explains probably how it was 
that ten years afterwards he told Frontenac that he could 
not believe that there were only 7,832 souls in all Canada, 
because he had sent a greater number than that him- 
self to the colony during the previous fifteen years. Every- 
one, however, was making calculations, and the King may have 
confounded the Bishop's calculation as to the fecundity of the 
population with the Intendant's actual return, for the King in 
1672 wrote to Talon that the Mons. de Laval assured him that 
"there will be 1,100 births next year." The King's response to 
Talon's appeal for aid was substantially that he needed every 
Frenchman able to carry arms as food for powder, but that, for 
that very reason, there were plenty of marriageable girls to spare,, 
notwithstanding that he had already sent many lusty wenches to 
Canada. The young women referred to certainly brought their 
virtues and their charms to an active market, for Colbert in 1671 
expresses the King's pleasure at hearing that of the 165 shipped 
the year previous, only sixteen remained unmated. The poor bach- 
elors, in fact, had no other choice than to marry, for unless, within 
fifteen days after the arrival of a batch of girls, they chose a 
partner, their license to hunt was cancelled. What wonder 



SLOW GROWTH OF THE COLONY. 



381 



that many of them preferred to choose a squaw at will instead 
of taking a wife of their own nation under compulsion? 

To encourage marriage the King was willing to spare 
a trifle from the wealth he lavished on his own illegitimate 
children. By an ordinance of 1676 parents with ten or more 
children born in wedlock, and not vowed to celibacy, were 
granted an annual allowance of 300 hvres, and an additional sum 
of 20 livres for each girl or boy at the date of their marriage. A 
list exists of fifty young couples to each of which a marriage dot 
of fifty francs was given by the King. Nevertheless, despite per- 
suasion and coercion, the total population in the year 168 1 had 
only increased to 9,666, and that of Quebec to 1,345. The colony 
of Virginia was founded in 1607, only one year before Champlain 
established Quebec as a trading post, and by 1642 it contained 
15,000 whites and 300 negroes. New England, though only 
twenty-two years old, contained 26,000 souls. The slower prog- 
ress of Canada as compared with the Enghsh seaboard colonies 
may at first sight be attributed to the same climatic and geo- 
graphic causes as operate to-day in retarding the progress of 
Quebec. But Louisiana was in many respects as favorably situated 
as Virginia, yet it lagged far behind her in growth. One must 
seek the explanation elsewhere, and no one reason will perhaps 
suffice. Rigid bureaucracy in politics, monopoly in trade, ultra- 
montanism in religion, and interference by the Church, both in 
politics and in domestic life, all combined to make the colony 
unpopular in France. The exclusion of the Huguenots is not 
an adequate explanation. It is doubtful whether they would 
have emigrated to Canada, even if permitted. Very few took 
refuge after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in New 
England. Puritan rigidity was not attractive to them. England, 
under William and Mary, was a more congenial home than 
America. Many of the Kcformers wandered in search of lib- 
erty far away to the little Dutch colony of the Cape of Good 
Hope, where the Jouberts and the Du Plessis still retain, not only 
the names of their forefathers, but their ancestral stern opinions 
and indomitable determination and courage. Nevertheless, the 
restrictions of personal liberty in New France seem not only to 



382 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



have prevented immigration to Canada, but to have driven settlers 
out of New France back to the motherland, for that there was a 
steady reflux the official correspondence conclusively demon- 
strates. Even had New France been founded on the same prin- 
ciples as New England and Virginia, Frenchmen, unless of the 
reformed faith, and driven out by persecution, would not have 
been any more willing to leave old France in the seventeenth cen- 
tury than they are in the twentieth.* Had Canada been a 
refuge for the Huguenots, as New England was for the Puritan, 
and had the home government not interfered in the development 
of the country, we might possibly have seen a new nationality 
created in the Western World, which, retaining Gallic character- 
istics, would have developed a type of national existence as dif- 
ferent from that of Old France as the New England type now 
differs from that of Old England. It was not to be. New France 
was destined to stagger under the weight of Old France's political 
and ecclesiastical rule until she sank under the burden. 

Still, to be just, it must be admitted that Canada lacked New 
England's splendid opportunities for commerce. The Puritan 
came to the sterile shores of Massachusetts for gain as well as for 
conscience sake, and he soon learned that it was more profitable to 
turn his attention to trade than to agriculture, for the crops which 
the bleak land yielded were scanty compared with the rich reward 
to be reaped from sea-going traffic. The French of the St. Law- 
rence, even if they could have defied the navigation laws of the 
land as arrogantly and successfully as the New Englanders did 
those of England, could not escape being icebound for half the 
year, nor do away with the fact that they were planted two hun- 
dred leagues from the ocean. The command of the St. Lawrence 
gave France the opportunity of controlling the heart of the con- 
tinent, but she forfeited all the advantage which this magnificent 
position gave her by not fighting, as she should have done, 
for an ocean outlet in the beginning. Virginia and New Eng- 
land instinctively appreciated their advantage and her weakness 

* While we need not adopt Balzac's theory that the Englishman is an emi- 
grant because he is in a hurry to get away from his odious island, we can under- 
stand the unwillingness of the Frenchman to leave a land that possesses all the at- 
tractions of every other. 



THE CANADIAN MILITIA. 



when they so persistently attacked her seaboard, and drove her 
first from Acadia and Newfoundland, and then from Cape 
Breton. 

The Marquis de Tracy who had supreme control as Lieu- 
tenant-General of the King, and commanded in person the cam- 
paign against the Iroquois in 1666, returned to France in 1667. 
In his administrative capacity he seems to have interfered as little 
as possible with the actions of the Governor, de Courcelle, and the 
Intendant. The latter had not been a month in the colony before 
he published a tariff fixing the price of merchandise and the value 
of beaver skins, the only currency used for purposes of barter. 
The dearest article was brandy — 140 livres the barrel. A white 
Normandy blanket the trader might exchange for six beaver skins, 
v/hile one skin was to be counted worth two pounds of powder or 
one pound of lead. A barrel of Indian corn was valued at six 
skins. De Tracy probably recognized that his mission was not to 
regulate prices, but to reconcile the civil and ecclesiastical powers 
of the colony, and conquer or restrain the Iroquois confederacy. 
While in Canada he succeeded in repressing the impatience of 
Courcelle under ecclesiastical interference, but it was quite beyond 
his power to establish any rules adequate to prevent friction under 
later adminstrations. He was an old man of over sixty, yet he 
conducted in person a decisive campaign against the Mohawks in 
the autumn of the year following his arrival, which dispelled from 
the Iroquois mind any hopes which Courcelle's ill-advised winter 
campaign may have excited. 

In these campaigns the Canadian militia first displayed that 
wonderful endurance and courage which has ever since character- 
ized it, and exhibited such soldierly qualities that the men of the 
Carignan-Salicres regiment did not think it derogatory to treat 
them as comrades. The campaign was bloodless, but was none 
the less effective in demonstrating to the Indians the power of 
France and her ability to take the offensive. De Tracy had the 
satisfaction, the winter before he sailed, of making a peace with 
the Mohawks, which secured tranquillity to the colony for several 
years. 



CHAPTER XX. 



The Intendant Talon, Commercial Activity, and Terri- 
torial Expansion. 

During the period from 1665 until Frontenac appeared on the 
scene in 1672, Talon is the most conspicuous figure in Canada. 
Even when temporarily in France, and represented in Canada by 
Mons. de Boutonville, his personal influence was paramount, and 
overshadowed that of the Governor, the Bishop and the Council. 
His tact and recognition of the Bishop's and the Jesuits' services 
prevented their publicly opposing him on account of his Gallican 
tendencies, and saved the people of Quebec from the unedi- 
fying spectacle of endless bickering in high places, and himself 
from waste of time and energy in quarreling over trifles. He could 
thus devote his talents to an intelligent effort to discover other re- 
sources in the country than hunting, or despoiling the Indians 
who did the hunting. He probably first conceived dimly, as the 
West was reached and rumors of the Mississippi country floated 
about him, the policy subsequently adopted by Frontenac, of en- 
circling the English colonies in a ring of French posts, and thus 
shutting them in between the sea and the Alleghenies. The policy 
is usually represented as that of the French government : it was 
rather that of the far-sighted Frenchman whom Colbert sent out 
than of the central power itself. 

Nevertheless, to judge by the instructions given to him in Paris, 
and bearing date March 27th, 1665, it was intended that his first 
care should be to hold the balance between the temporal and ec- 
clesiastical authorities — the latter represented by the Bishop and 
the Jesuits — in such a manner that the ecclesiastical power 
should be subordinate to the civil in the management of affairs. 
He was advised, however, as the Jesuits had not only local 
knowledge and influence, but the correspondence and min- 




Talon. 



INDUSTRIES OF THE COLONY. 



38s 



utes of the council, to wheedle out of them all they could give or 
tell, without exciting their suspicions. 

During Talon's second administration he was instructed to 
use the Recollets and the Sulpicians as a buffer against the pre- 
tensions of the Jesuits. By the same mail Colbert wrote to 
Bishop Laval, the Jesuits' friend, assuring him of the King's high 
esteem, and flattering him with the declaration that the colony 
had had no life until he devoted himself to its welfare. 

While Talon was keeping the peace in the official household, 
he was marking the passage of Canada from the control of a trad- 
ing company to that of the government, by inducing the people 
to engage in manufacturing, so as to be, not importers, but ex- 
porters, of such things as the soil was capable of producing. 
Wheat was already raised in excess of home consumption, and 
was exported. Vaudreuil gives the exportation of flour in 1709 
as 958,955 pounds, while lumber, which had always been an article 
of export, was shipped in large quantities. We find Talon begging 
that a millwright may be sent out capable of erecting sawmills. As 
a subordinate industry to lumbering and clearing of the soil, the 
making of crude potash from wood-ashes had always been prac- 
ticed, and the export of black ash was now beginning. A tannery 
was started, and shipbuilding on a scale not heretofore attempted 
was giving employment to the Quebec carpenters. Colbert con- 
gratulated Talon in 1671 on the fact that three ships of home 
build had sailed with cargoes from Canada to the West In- 
dies; and Father Dablon, in the preface to his Relation of 
1671-1672, speaks of a 500 ton ship being under construction, and 
of one still larger being designed. Cod fishing and sealing on the 
river were stimulated by the right of entering cured fish into 
France and selling it at the same rate as though a product of the 
mother country. Even mining was not neglected. The titanifer- 
ous iron ores of Baie St. Paul were examined by a Mons. de la 
Tesserie, but, though existing in large quantities, they were wisely 
left untouched. The more fusible bog ores of the St. Maurice 
were reported on favorably by the Sicur la Potardierc in 1668. 
Though Frontenac wrote strongly in favor of the building of a 
forge, and though his successor, Denonvillo, reiterated the advice, 



386 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



over fifty years elapsed before one was erected and iron made in 
New France. There was no little excitement over the report 
that silver-bearing galena had been found in Gaspe Basin, but 
nothing came of it. Not so, however, regarding the discovery of 
copper on Lake Superior. The use of malleable copper by the 
Indians had early been observed by the Europeans, and rumors 
of its existence in the native state had reached the Inten- 
dant even before Father Dablon, in the Relation of 1670, describ- 
ed the famous copper mass on the Lake Shore. Talon some time 
before this had sent Jean Fere, a Quebec merchant, who was 
willing to travel far in search of trade, to Lake Superior with 
Joliet to look for copper, and had received from him an enthusias- 
tic report on his discoveries. As for Joliet the atmosphere of the 
West had inspired him with a higher motive than gain ; he was 
now seized by that passion for exploration which was destined to 
render him the joint discoverer, with Father Marquette, of the 
route from the Lakes to the Mississippi. 

All this activity centered in Quebec, where, instead of a solitary 
ship or two, bringing the mails and stores, and returning with pel- 
tries and a few sticks of timber, a fleet of eleven ships rode at an- 
chor in the summer of 1668. The trade of the port continued sub- 
sequently to increase until Lower Canada became one of the gran- 
aries of Europe, and its principal source of lumber. In other 
respects as well the town grew in importance and activity, as 
French influence extended over the West, and Frenchmen, if not 
the government of Versailles, began dimly to appreciate the des- 
tiny which hovered over the continent, of v/hich they would have 
had chief control, had fate only so willed, and had those money- 
making, restless and tenacious nation-builders on the other side 
of the Alleghenies not stood in their way. 

With the able rulers sent out when France assumed the reins 
of government, there arrived in Quebec many a notable character 
whose name still clings to the soil of what is now for Frenchmen 
a foreign land, though few of those who tread that soil ever 
identify the scenes around them with the heroes by whom the 
primeval wilderness was first penetrated and made known. La 



QUEBEC THE CENTER OF ENTERPRISE. 



387 



Salle, with its zinc furnaces ; Joliet, with its glowing steel works ; 
De Pere, in Wisconsin ; Duluth, all alive with its railroads, docks 
and huge lake steamers and their consorts ; Marquette, now better 
known as a shipping port for Michigan iron than as the name of 
one of the most saintly of the saints ; all these places immortalize 
in their names the deeds of men who made these closing years of 
the seventeenth century memorable in the history of the New 
World. 

These men and many others congregated and made their plans 
in the little town of Quebec, whence they scattered to do their 
work. Some were fired with religious zeal, caught from their 
associations with the Seminary, the Jesuit College, or the RecoUet 
Monastery. Others had imbibed the enthusiasm of Talon and 
Frontenac, and saw visions of wealth for themselves and of glory 
to France from the possession of the vast interior of the great 
continent, which, the further it was penetrated, revealed ever 
more majestic natural features, in lakes that were inland seas, 
river after river of wondrous length, prairies of boundless extent 
and fertility, stretching to the base of mountains described to be 
of fabulous height, and which might hide in their depths, as they 
were afterwards found to do, treasures such as had raised Spain 
to the pinnacle of wealth and grandeur. 

As this amazing panorama was unrolled before the mission- 
aries, the pioneers and coiirciirs de hois, who met in the churches, 
the taverns and the chateaus of old Quebec, there was created one 
of those furores of exploration which seize on whole communities, 
rouse its most ardent spirits to action, and usher in the great cy- 
cles of geographical discovery. Could Louis XIV. have looked 
with the eye of imagination on the American continent, and allow- 
ed himself to catch a spark of the enthusiasm which inspired some 
of his servants in the New World, events might have taken a very 
different turn. As it was, he simply looked with arrogant indif- 
ference on foreign trade, and on the inroads which England was 
making on his commerce, though the broader mind of Coll)ert, 
justly regarded trade as the mainspring of national greatness and 
prosperity. The King's opinion was candidly, if not very intelli- 



388 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY, 



gently, expressed when he wrote : "If the English would only be 
satisfied with being traders and let us be conquerors, an arrange- 
ment could be easily arrived at. We should be quite content 
with one-fourth of the world's commerce and concede to her the 
rest." France, nevertheless, thanks, to a large extent, to the in- 
dustry and intelligence of the minister, became the world's work- 
shop for artistic products, and has remained so ever since. To 
the energy of the same untiring worker, spurred by the ambition 
of his royal master, must be attributed the building up of the 
French navy, as it were by magic. Unfortunately, so absorbed 
was the King by war and the machinery necessary for its pros- 
ecution, and so proud was he of domestic France, with its palaces 
and its factories, which he saw springing up under the wand of 
his patronage, that he had neither money nor time to bestow on 
what, had he been able to see a little further into the future, he 
would have recognized, to be not merely New France, but 
Greater France. 

During this period of territorial and commercial expansion, the 
Church was as active as ever, and the rivalry of its several orders 
-helped, rather than hindered, missionary work. There was com- 
petition in the work of saving souls, openly hostile in character, 
between the Jesuit and Recollet bodies, and friendly between 
the Jesuits, the priests of the Quebec Seminary and the Sulpicians 
of Montreal, the questions chiefly in debate being as to their re- 
spective spheres of action and influence among the aborigines. 
The zeal of the clergy, it must be admitted, was scarcely more 
free from the alloy of jealousy than that of the laity. The Recol- 
lets, as we know, were brought over by Talon to checkmate the 
Jesuits. The priests of the Seminary were not as cordial towards 
the Jesuit College on the other side of the market place as Bishop 
Laval was to its Superior ; while the Jesuits, on their side, regard- 
ing all New France and Louisiana as their rightful field of opera- 
tions, resented the interference of the barefooted Friars, and did 
not view with favor the missionary efforts even of the Seminary 
priests and Sulpicians. The secular clergy, not without reason, 
opposed the encroachment of the regulars on their parish pre- 
serves ; and finally the Recollets, fully reciprocating the dislike of 




La Salle. 



IMPORTANT ARRIVALS. 



389 



the Jesuits, did not scruple to charge them with exaggerating the 
success of their holy endeavors among the aborigines as a help 
towards securing financial and political aid in France. 

In the early summer of 1675 a cargo of very diverse humanity 
sailed from France for Canada. Laval, now Bishop of Quebec 
and no friend to the Recollet Fathers, was on board, to- 
gether with the bustling, egotistical Recollet Friar, Father Hen- 
nepin, and a man of very different character, already known in 
Canada, and destined to become famous as perhaps the most 
daring and original of all the explorers of the Great West, Sieur 
Robert Cavelier de La Salle. There were also among the pas- 
sengers a number of girls going to the colony in search of hus- 
bands. The gallant Cavelier, though educated, as Hennepin as- 
serts, for the priesthood in a Jesuit college, and the merry girls 
broke the tedium of the voyage by dancing and revelry, but as 
these pastimes were indulged in under the eye of the Bishop they 
cannot have been very shocking. Nevertheless they called forth 
the severest reprimand from the Friar, who, like many an- 
other pious person, was willing to "compound for sins he was 
inclined to by damning those he had no mind to." To the good 
Friar lying was a venial offence, dancing a deadly sin. Long 
after La Salle was dead the Friar tried to rob him of the credit of 
his discoveries. He pretended, moreover, that La Salle had sent 
him to what he expected would be his death in return for the 
scoldings he had given him for unseemly levity on that otherwise 
unmcmorable voyage. In reality La Salle had merely given him 
an opportunity to achieve a little greatness on his own account. 

This was not the first time La Salle had crossed the ocean, but 
it was now that he was to begin that heroic effort to forestall the 
English trade in the Illinois country, and to win for France the 
Mississippi from its source to the Delta. Under the influence of 
his protector, Frontenac, he chose Recollets rather than Jesuits 
for the religious side of his expedition. The youth and the energy 
of that sanctimonious busybody, Father Flennepin, recommended 
him as one of the missionaries of the party, but fortunately another 
of the same fraternity, Father Zenobe Membre, accompanied 
the expedition, and has left a memoir of his chief's explorations, as 



390 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

conspicuous for its modesty as Hennepin's story is remarkable for 
the reverse. 

Though Louis XIV. had warned Talon and Frontenac to con- 
centrate their limited forces, rather than scatter them, and in 
pursuance of this policy to discourage western exploration and 
trade expansion both Intendant and Governor virtually defied, on 
this point, the instructions of the monarch. They were confident 
of their own better judgment, and knew that the Court could not 
control their actions at so great a distance from the seat of 
authority. Frontenac doubtless believed that he could rely on 
the support of the colonial minister, Colbert ; and, in any case, he 
felt that it was vain to resist the impulse which was carrying 
French Canada westward and southward along the great water- 
ways of the continent. In 1679-1680 the Sulpicians, Dollier 
and Gallinee, explored and mapped the north shore of Lake 
Erie, and in the following year St. Lusson, La Salle and 
Nicholas Perrot were commissioned to explore the West, and 
establish trading posts, which they did, with the assistance of 
the Jesuit Fathers who had preceded them, at Michillimackinac, 
Ste. Marie and elsewhere. Marquette and Joliet had reached the 
Mississippi by way of Green Bay and the Wisconsin River. Dulhut 
reached it and the Sioux country from the western end of Lake 
Superior. Hennepin had met Dulhut while ascending the river 
from the mouth of the Illinois, and at length, after disappoint- 
ments and failures that would have broken the spirit of any other 
man. La Salle carried out his scheme for exploring the country of 
the Illinois and Ohio, and reached the sea by way of the Mis- 
sissippi. These expeditions — all undertaken probably at private 
expense — were an outcome of the greater freedom of trade which 
was granted after the dissolution of the West India Company. 
They expressed the spirit of nationality which the new constitu- 
tion, devoid though it was of popular features, and the passage of 
government from the company to the crown, had excited. At the 
same time they also brought wealth to Quebec, as the furs from 
those new posts in the distant West contributed their share to the 
trade of the port, and otherwise stimulated the life of the place. 

Quebec, however, was also keenly interested in operations 



ACTIVITY OF THE CANADIAN MILITIA. 



nearer home which shed lustre on the Canadian mihtia, a race of 
soldiers which has become famous in the annals of irregular 
warfare. 

Newfoundland, which commanded the mouth of the St. Law- 
rence, was a perpetual menace to the chief towns and ports of the 
St. Lawrence as long as it was held in hostile hands. The Can- 
adians of New France recognized the important strategic position 
of the tenth greatest island of the world more accurately than the 
Dominion does to-day ; and Iberville, by his dashing campaign and 
his capture of St. John's, should have stimulated France to make 
an effort to maintain permanent and comiplete possession of the 
island. 

But the Hudson Bay question, as we shall see in a later chapter, 
assumed greater importance to the mercantile community of Que- 
bec than even the possession of Newfoundland. To defend the 
rights of France in that region also the Canadian militia were 
called into active service, and responded with cheerfulness and 
promptitude ; for the French Canadian, unlike his English neigh- 
bors, never devoted himself heart and soul to trade or agriculture. 
He loved pleasure and he loved war, and therefore made a good 
soldier. Previous to the arrival of the Carignan-Salieres Regi- 
ment in 1665, but few regular troops had been sent to Canada 
from time to time, and the people had consequently been compelled 
to defend themselves. As early as 1649 the militia forces had been 
organized, but the regular militia establishment of Canada dates 
from a later period. In the census of 1679 there are enumerated 
1,800 guns and 169 pistols. As there were then about the same 
number of Canadian families as of firearms, the inference is that 
one member of every family at any rate was enrolled for military 
service. The militia, as organized by Talon, Courcelle and Fron- 
tenac, remains a more or less effective offensive and defensive 
force to our own day, when the law requires every man to be a 
soldier. The flagpole which has ever since distinguished the 
rallying point of the village militia was then first raised in front of 
the captain's house, "capitaine de cote," l)ut the habitant is not now 
so often called on to drop his spade and shoulder his musket for 



392 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

actual warfare as in the days when he sprang to the summons of 
a Le Moyne d'Iberville. 

The efficiency of the militia was improved by infusion into it 
of the spirit and discipline of the old soldiers of the Carignan- 
Salieres regiment, and of contingents of other regiments which 
were encouraged to, and did actually, settle, in Canada and join 
the militia. There were sent to Canada between 1665 and the end 
of the century about 4,000 men as King's soldiers, but probably at 
no one time were there over 2,000 in the colony. Many of the 
rank and file were mustered out in Canada and became Canadians, 
while a number of the officers accepted large grants of land as 
seignories. 

The Iroquois no longer invaded the lower St. Lawrence, but 
the Richelieu, the Ottawa, and the posts and mission stations on 
the Lakes needed protection; consequently the larger portion of 
the scanty force available was scattered west of Quebec, a small 
garrison, not more than sufficient to give dignity to the Governor's 
position, being retained at the seat of government. The census 
of 1681 gives the number of soldiers in the Chateau as only 
twenty-one — no more than a corporal's guard. 



CHAPTER XXI. 



Frontenac as Governor. 

De Courcelle, as we have related, came out as the first Gover- 
nor after the charter of the Company of One Hundred Associates 
was dissolved. Though he had the strong head and hand of 
Talon to guide him, his health broke down under the worry and 
fatigue of war and negotiation with Indian foes as dangerous in 
the one as they were treacherous in the other. Louis de Buade, 
Comte de Pallua et Frontenac, was appointed to succeed 
him in 1672. No Governor of Canada under the French regime, 
made so many enemies as the great Count, yet none has ever won 
in so large a measure the confidence and admiration of the col- 
onists. When he obtained, as a reward for thirty years of active 
military service, the Governorship of New France, he was still in 
the prime of life ; for he had received his first commission in 1637, 
when a lad of seventeen, and he was now fifty-two years of age. 
During his military career in Europe he had risen to the rank of 
field officer, and fought in Flanders, Germany and Italy. His 
last campaign was in Crete, which he was unable to save from 
falling into the hands of the Turk. Three years afterwards, trans- 
ported to the Western World, he was devising schemes to frus- 
trate a very different but no less wily foe, the Iroquois; and his 
genius is conspicuous in the versatility with which he could 
abandon the military lessons of a lifetime and adapt himself to 
the wholly dissimilar conditions of Indian warfare. But 
though he left his tactics behind him when he came to Canada, 
he did not leave his personal characteristics, one of which was 
an arbitrary and violent temper, which the habit of military 
command and the sufferings and vicissitudes of a soldier's life 
had not done anything to soften. Such a temper, it need hardly 
be said, was not likely to aid him in the delicate task which 
had proved to be beyond the capacity of his predecessors, of 
maintaininc;' a just equilibrium between the civil and the eccles- 



394 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

iastical power. The Intendant, Talon, was still in office when 
Frontenac arrived in 1672; but as he left soon afterwards, 
Frontenac found himself in undisputed control of both civil 
and military affairs, saving the possible interference of the 
Court. The colony was so near bankruptcy that no one but a 
trained economist endowed with independent control, could have 
rescued it, or have reconciled the interests of the West India Com- 
pany with the prosperity of the people and the welfare of the 
State. But if camp life had not made of Frontenac a statesman 
or financier, it did train him to become the saviour of Canada at a 
crisis in her history when absolute confidence in his own judg- 
ment and unshaken courage in carrying out his policy were need- 
ed to impress on the enemies of France in America, both savage 
and civilized, respect for her military strength, and to infuse into 
the disheartened colonists a spirit of nationality and an ardor for 
territorial expansion. 

He conducted no important campaign against the English or 
the Iroquois during his first administration, yet by the force of his 
character, by his natural gift of oratory, supplemented by pictur- 
esque and significant gesture — language, he so impressed the Iro- 
quois, during the great peace conference at Montreal in 1680, 
with awe and respect that they refrained from any overt act of 
barbarity till after his recall in 1682. His removal was due to ir- 
ritation at Versailles over the constant friction between himself 
and the Bishop, with whom the Intendant, Duchesneau, generally 
sided. Talon had sailed away after Courcelle, and Frontenac was 
unhampered by any civil colleague for three years. During this 
period Bishop Laval was absent in France, to secure the 
erection of his episcopal charge into an independent diocese, and 
his own appointment as Bishop of Quebec. In his absence his 
functions, civil and ecclesiastical, were committed to MM. Dudouyt 
and de Bernieres, as vicars apostolic, who did their best to main- 
tain the asserted rights of the Church against infringement by the 
Governor. But it was not till Laval himself returned as Bishop of 
Quebec in September, 1675, after an absence of nearly four years^ 
accompanied by a new Intendant, Duchesneau, who had been 
thoroughly indoctrinated with the idea that his principal duty was 



FRONTEXAC'S SUCCESSORS. 



395 



to be a spy and a check on the Governor, that the controversy be- 
tween Church and State was supplemented by a bitter feud be- 
tween the Governor and his civil colleague. This at length grew 
so tiresome to the King and so detrimental to the interests of the 
colony that both Governor and Intendant were recalled in 
1682, and a poor substitute for Frontenac was sent out in the per- 
son of old ^lons. Pierre de la Barre, while Jacques de Meulles re- 
placed Duchesneau. The chief incident in Governor de la Barre's 
administration was an abortive campaign against the Iroquois — 
the Senecas being the special objects of attack on account 
of their hostility to the Illinois, who, mainly through the 
explorations and trading operations of La Salle, had become allies 
of the French. Then a treaty was made, which met with repro- 
bation in the colony and such emphatic disapproval in France 
that, in his instructions to Marquis Denonville, de la Barre's suc- 
cessor, the King regretfully remarks that he had chosen Mons. de 
la Barre to put an end to the dissensions between the Governor 
and the Intendant, and he now recalls him on account of his great 
age and the shameful peace he had condescended to make with 
the Iroquois. 

Denonville fared worse than his predecessor, for though he 
gained notable advantages over the Iroquois, he was unable to de- 
fend the colony against the measures of revenge taken by the foe 
upon the settlers on the Richelieu and at Montreal, and on the 
Indian allies of France. Quebec and its vicinity did not suffer 
directly from these Iroquois attacks, but trade and all internal 
progress were arrested, and the colony was brought to the very 
verge of ruin. Fvcn the fort at Cataraqui, the stronghold which 
Frontenac first built, and which La Salic rebuilt and main- 
tained, and on which the defense of the West so largely depended, 
was dismantled and abandoned. 

Meanwhile, in 1685, as the King states in a memorandum to 
Mons. de Meulles, seeing tliat Mons. de la Barre had been unable 
to settle the difficulty with Bishop Laval regarding the status 
and remuneration of the cures, he had accepted the Bishop's re- 
signation, and appointed the Chevalier Mons. dc Saint Vallier 
in his place. 



396 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



Frontenac's chief clerical opponent, having thus no longer a 
seat in the Council, and the place of his incompatible colleague, 
Duchesneau, being now filled by Jean Bochart de Champigny, the 
way was open for sending baci^ the Count to Canada as the one 
man who could save the colony by his personal prowess and re- 
nown without assistance from France — for the King would pro- 
mise nothing. The people were at one with the King and his coun- 
cilors in regarding Frontenac as their only possible deliverer, and 
so when he landed in Quebec for the second time, in October, 
1689, though there was no parade or noisy rejoicing — for the town 
was too dispirited for hilarity — he was greeted with what was 
more flattering still to the grand old veteran, a visible resurrection 
of hope and confidence among all classes. War, famine, pestilence 
and poverty had chased each other from end to end of the colony, 
and now all were to be banished under the influence of the mighty 
name of Frontenac. 

The flight of James II. and the accession to the throne of Will- 
iam and Mary had produced acute changes in the relation of the 
French and English crowns and colonies. De Callieres, Governor 
of Montreal, propounded a radical plan of campaign for settling 
the Iroquois question, namely, to conquer New York ; but, before 
that was accomplished, the English applied the same radical treat- 
ment to the Abenaki question by attempting to capture Quebec. 
Sir William Phipps, having taken Port Royal in May, 1690, ap- 
peared before Quebec on October 16, with thirty-two ships and 
over 2,000 men. The news of his approach reached Frontenac in 
Montreal, where he was holding a pow-wow and giving a great 
feast to his Western Indian allies. He was winning their hearts by 
dancing their dances and sharing their unpalatable cookery; but 
he hurried back to Quebec, and de Callieres, the Governor of Mon- 
treal, followed so expeditiously with 800 regular and irregular 
troops that he arrived only two days after his commander, his 
men marching down the Grand Allee in such high spirits that their 
shouts could be heard on the hostile ships. That same day Phipps 
sent his peremptory summons to Frontenac to surrender. He had 
imitated, when framing it, a similar document sent by Kirke to 
Champlain ; but conditions, as well as men, had changed. Phipps' 



THE SECOND SIEGE OF QUEBEC. 



397 



challenge reads like burlesque in the light of the ignominious 
failure of his expedition. Nevertheless, in defending the town 
in its hour of danger, Frontenac displayed not only military skill, 
but great fertility of resource. We read that when Sir 
William Phipps' messenger was led blindfolded up the 
steep road from the landing into the tumble-down Chateau, 
the few inhabitants of the town jostled the poor fellow as though 
they had been a multitude, which the narrow road could not 
contain. The handful of soldiers meanwhile, with their drum- 
mer and trumpeter, passed and repassed before and behind 
the blind, bewildered herald, like the army in a play 
where men march and countermarch through the wings of a 
stage. When the envoy was unbandaged and allowed to read his 
message, mercifully offering advantageous terms of surrender, he 
found himself in a room of the old Chateau which showed no 
signs of being a tottering building, surrounded by a crowd of 
officers in their best uniforms, who confirmed the gallant Mar- 
quis's haughty reply by their well-acted, contemptuous gestures. 
Frontenac said haughtily that he did not need the hour for delib- 
eration offered by the Admiral of the rebel King William, and in- 
dignantly refused to send any other reply to the summons to sur- 
render than shot from the mouths of his cannon. 

The defences of Quebec in men and guns were vastly greater 
that when Kirke summoned the helpless Champlain to surrender ; 
for, though still indifferently protected landwards, the town was 
impregnable from the river, and it was on that side that the only 
vigorous attack was made. Phipps made a fruitless attempt, 
as Wolfe subsequently did, to advance on the town from 
the Beauport Flats. Failing, he used his broadsides ; but the 
bombardment of the town from the fleet was answered by a better 
directed fire from the city batteries. With some ships disabled 
Phipps gave up the attempt, and returned, to suffer more from tlic 
elements in the Gulf than from the fire of the Grand Battery. 
His tardiness in reaching the field of operation, combined with the 
incongruous elements of his naval and land forces, made failure 
almost a foregone conclusion ; nevertheless, so short was the gar- 
rison of provisions that the addition of de Callieres' forces to the 



398 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



poverty-stricken and hungry town would have made surrender in- 
evitable, had Phipps known the true state of Frontenac's com- 
mand and been bold, or rather rash, enough to run the risk of 
November storms in the Gulf. 

Mons. Saint Vallier was building at the time a little church 
in the Lower Town, on the site of the old Company's store, 
and this he dedicated to Notre Dame de la Victoire. The 
first Sunday after the 22nd of October of each year is still ob- 
served as a feast day in commemoration of the victory. The same 
unpretentious little chapel was re-dedicated to the Virgin twenty- 
two years afterwards, in recognition of her intervention in wreck- 
ing Admiral Hovenden Walker's fleet in the Gulf ; and it has since 
been known as Notre Dame des Vic to ires, the plural form repre- 
senting her two interventions on behalf of the pious town which 
had always been particularly devoted to the worship of the Holy 
Family. The Quebec clergy were willing to attribute the whole 
credit of Phipps' — as they were subsequently of Walker's — defeat 
to divine aid.* 

The brilliant defence was soon known to the uttermost parts 
of New France, nor was it long before the defeat of the attacking 
fleet and army was reported and bemoaned in the villages and 
towns of the English colonies. A medal was struck by the 
French government in commemoration of the victory, but 
no adequate forces were sent to Canada to protect her in 
future. The exploit raised the renown of the Governor among 
white men and red^ and restrained New England from making 
any further attempt to capture Canada's stronghold during Fron- 
tenac's life. Louis XIV. was slow in recognizing his debt to the 
Count, even to the extent of conferring on him the Cross of St. 
Louis. He declined to make him a lieutenant-general, but allowed 
him a gratuity of 6,000 livres for his chaplain, secretary and 

* The English, after the final capture of Quebec, were less humble, for in a 
sermon preached by Samuel Cooper before Governor Pownall and the Massa- 
chusetts Council and House of Representatives, the reverend gentleman allows 
Divine Providence only a share, as co-operating with the British navy, in the 
honor of the final victory. To quote the speaker's own words — "These con- 
quests, great as they have been, are owing to the favor of that Being, who is 
the sole monarch of the ocean, where even the British navy cannot triumph with- 
out the aid of His providence." 



\ 



LIFE AT THE CHATEAU ST. LOUIS. 



399 



surgeon. Phipps' challenge and defeat aggravated the rancor- 
ous feeling between the neighboring French and English colonies, 
rendering more vicious the border raids in which Christian men 
on both sides enlisted the services of the Indians, and thus made 
themselves responsible for the abominations and barbarities of 
savage warfare. Happily, before Frontenac passed away in the 
autumn of 1698, there was a lull in this hateful strife consequent 
upon the establishment of peace between France and England; 
and one of his last public acts was to entertain at dinner in the old 
Chateau John Schuyler, of Albany, who had come, on the procla- 
mation of the Peace of Ryswick, to negotiate for an exchange of 
prisoners. 

The defeat of Phipps was the only heroic incident in an ir- 
ritating, ignominious border warfare. It was, however, not only 
the constant terror to which the frontier settlements of ]\Iassachu- 
setts were exposed, but alarm at the far-reaching schemes which 
Frontenac had formed to hem the English colonies within a circle 
of French forts, stretching from the mouth of the St. Lawrence 
to the mouth of the Mississippi, that goaded the New England 
colony to desperation, and inspired the attempt to extinguish at 
one blow French power on the Continent. 

Turning now from deeds of warfare to the social life of the 
colony, it is impossible not to regret that Frontenac was not ac- 
companied to Canada by his brilliant Countess. Her womanly 
tact, it is safe to say, would have kept him out of many difficulties 
into which he rashly ran. The Chateau under the Old Regime 
famous though it was through the men who, in peace and in war, 
had held council within its walls, had seldom been the scene of 
such social hospitalities as women alone can devise and conduct. 

Life in the Old Fort was modest and simple enough in Cham- 
plain's time, and conducted with almost monastic severity, especi- 
ally during his later years, when his Jesuit advisers had an un- 
disputed ascendancy. There was one short interval when his 
young wife shed a little brightness over its scanty accommoda- 
tions. Governor Montma^y, during his long rule, carried 
out strictly and faithfully his vows of celibacy, and as the black 
robes were very intimate at the Chateau his suite must have been 



400 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

compelled to observe a like restraint, and women must have found 
its atmosphere uncongenial. Madame d'Aillebout, who was mis- 
tress twice, was, though devout, a fascinating woman, and won 
men's hearts, as well as their respect, long after her austere hus- 
band had gone to his well-deserved reward. The Chateau was cer- 
tainly not the scene of much public revelry during its occupation by 
the three Governors who, after de Lauzon, successively represent- 
ed the Company of the One Hundred Associates. None of them 
were accompanied by their wives. All were in conflict with 
the Bishop, and none therefore — publicly at least — dare 
aggravate their sins by encouraging such gaiety as a public ball. 
In the early days fireworks and plays were exhibited at the fort 
to amuse the Indians and instruct the people, for the Jesuits had 
none of the Puritan scruples against theatrical performances, 
which were given in their College by their pupils on special occa- 
sions, and as part of the annual closing exercises ; but they had all 
John Wesley's aversion to dancing, or to amusements which 
brought the sexes into too close proximity. 

On the assumption by the King of actual rule over the Colony 
in 1663 and the arrival of the Carignan-Salieres Regiment 
to give eclat to the King's viceroy, de Tracy, who landed with be- 
fitting dignity from a fleet of ships, everything changed, and with 
it the strict rule of the early Jesuit period. Though the Bishop 
was not a lover of pleasure, and the clergy of the Quebec Diocese 
were then, as they have ever since been, strict disciplinarians, en- 
forcing a rigid code of morality, they did not restrict their flocks 
in the enjoyment of innocent amusements. It was different at 
Montreal. The gay Baron Lahontan complained bitterly, when 
stationed with his regiment there, of the strict surveillance which 
the Reverend Seigneurs, the priests of St. Sulpice, maintained. 
They not only forbade all dancing, gambling and masquerading, 
but took noble ladies to task, and deprived them of the sacrament, 
because they dressed in gayer colors than the sombre priests ap- 
proved ; and they never hesitated to upbraid the culprits from the 
pulpit, a habit which got them into trouble when the Abbe Fenelon 
went so far as to criticise Frontenac himself in one of his sermons. 
They were also extremely particular as to what they allowed 



MORAL DECLENSION. 



401 



their flock to read. This probably was a restriction of personal 
liberty little objected to by a community kept ever on the watch 
for the Iroquois and not much given to literature. The French 
officers, however, were not over devout, and the books which they 
brought with them and allowed to lie about their quarters, alarm- 
ed and scandalized the good Fathers in a shocking degree. The 
Cure in the Baron's absence saw fit to ransack his room and found 
a copy of the works of Petronius, which, being a perfect edi- 
tion, the Baron particularly valued. But it remained perfect no 
longer, as the angry cure tore out a number of objectionable 
leaves. The Baron, on discovering the mutilation, swore he would 
tear as many hairs out of the priest's beard as the priest had torn 
leaves from his book. His indignation, however, finally yielded to 
the entreaties of his landlord not to get him into trouble by such 
a mode of resenting the injury. From Montreal the Baron was 
removed to Boucherville, where, the cure being more tolerant, he 
enjoyed himself in a round of parties and picnics. Of the Quebec 
secular clergy he has only kind words to say ; he admits and 
appreciates the self-denial of these poor priests who contented 
themselves with the bare necessities of life, and applauds the 
good sense with which they refrained from meddling with 
matters outside their province. 

It is to be feared, however, that the lenient rule of the Quebec 
clergy was taken advantage of by their parishioners, for Bishop 
Laval, in 1682, was obliged to reprove the women for not only 
coming to church, but taking the sacrament and distributing pain 
benit, with bare arms and low-neck dresses and uncovered 
heads. The abuse had grown to such a pass that he was com- 
pelled to forbid the priests administering the sacrament to women 
thus underclad. The excesses or deficiencies in dress were per- 
haps a symptom of a social condition requiring great watchful- 
ness on the part of the clergy, for we find the Bishop threatening 
to excommunicate all who took part in a charivari, a noisy mode 
of expressing popular disapproval of unsuitable marriages which 
has survived to our own day. But a few years later still worse 
demoralization threatened the pious town, for Frontcnac, besides 
giving a public ball at the Chateau in the winter of 1694, went 



402 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



SO far as to propose that Moliere's "Tartufife" should be per- 
formed. 

The Jesuits had patronized by their presence serious tragedies, 
such as Corneille's ''Heraclius" and ''The Cid," but they had dis- 
approved absolutely of a ballet given at the Company's store in 
1647, vv^hich a certain ''petite Marsolet," a pupil of the Ursulines, 
had attended in defiance of their commands. When Fron- 
tenac enlisted the dramatic talent of the garrison in the per- 
formance of Racine's "Mithridate," no protest v;^as made; but 
v^hen he proposed playing "Tartuffe," and assigned the manage- 
ment to a certain Lieutenant Mareul, a gentleman, who, though 
only a year in the colony, had already become notorious for his 
gallantry, his old friend, Bishop Saint Vallier, loudly protested. It 
is assumed as true by the Abbe Ferland that Frontenac suggested 
that it would do the religious ladies and their scholars good to 
see a certain phase of life depicted in its true colors. If there is 
any truth in the story, Frontenac must have intended it for a joke, 
in the same spirit as that in which he met the Bishop when he 
accepted 100 pistoles from the fat purse of the wealthy prelate in 
consideration of withdrawing the piece. The Bishop did not see 
the joke. The Governor kept his promise ; but the Bishop, to en- 
sure the fulfilment of the pact, thundered mandements against 
such irreligious plays, and included Mareul himself by name as 
"an impious creature, who even in public talks in a manner which 
should make the very heavens blush and call down the vengeance 
of God." "Tartuffe" contains some expressions that verge on the 
indelicate and which might be omitted without injuring the play; 
but no pruning could conceal the fact that the motive of the 
whole comedy is a satire against religious hypocrisy. 

Tartuffe was a lay, not a clerical, hypocrite, and the play 
was aimed against the Illuminati and their courtly advocate, Des- 
marets. So clearly was this recognized at the time of its first 
presentation that it met, according to Michelet, with the approval 
of the papal legate himself ; but none the less its application to 
hypocrites in general has made it popular with every generation, 
and odious to certain classes. Neither Laval nor Saint Vallier had 
the least reason to fear a personal reference, but the wealthy Jes- 



A THREATENED PERFORMAXCE OF "tARTUFFE." 



uits, accused, whether justly or not, of augmenting the already 
great wealth of the Society, by engaging in trade under the guise 
of mission work, might well dread to see the comedy performed. 
Whether Bishop Saint Vallier loved the Jesuits or not, he dare not 
allow any body of clerg}^ to be exposed to ridicule. The Bishop 
therefore threw himself impetuously into the fray against the 
play, against the Governor who had suggested it, and against the 
officers who were to act in it, thus alienating his best friend, the 
Governor, and antagonizing the army. He even induced the 
Sovereign Council to arrest ^lareul for blasphemy, and kept him 
in prison until Frontenac almost by force procured his release.* 

* The quarrel between Bishop Saint Vallier and Frontenac over Tartuffe 
was a repetition of a somewhat similar feud between Bishop Laval and the In- 
tendant Talon, growing out of a ball given by M. Chartier de Lotbiniere in 1667. 
The brotherhood (confrerie) of the Holy Family in Canada originated with the 
Jesuit Father Chaumont. He had, to use his own words, "conceived for fourteen 
years or more the ardent desire that the Divine Mary should have a large number 
of spiritual children by adoption to console her for the suffering she underwent 
through the loss of her Jesus. Once when I was smitten by this ardent desire to 
obtain for the Virgin Mother this saintly and numerous posterity, I suddenly 
heard distinctly in the depth of my soul these words, which appealed to my heart: 
' You will be my spouse, since you desire to make me the mother of so many 
children.' Filled ^ith shame and confusion, in that the Mother of God should 
think of doing me such an honor, I was abased by the consideration of my 
nothingness, my sins and my wretchedness. Nevertheless, she told me that she 
was my spouse." Thus originated in Canada, the brotherhood of the Holy 
Family, which Bishop Laval favored, for the creation of which he obtained bulls 
from Alexander VIL, for the guidance of whose members he laid down wise and 
stimulating rules intended to assist them in imitating the life of the Holy Family. 
As the women members were urged to ask themselves on every critical occasion, 
" How would the Holy Virgin have acted under these circumstances ? Would 
she have done this ? Would she have spoken thus ? Would she have dressed 
in this fashion ? " and as they promised to abstain from frivolities in which the 
Holy Virgin would not have engaged, the range of gayeties in which they might 
participate was limited. Some of the ladies, who, in their enthusiasm, had joined 
the fraternity, yielding to more worldly impulses, went to M. Chartier's ball, for 
which they were gravely reproved by the Bishop and the priests of the Semi- 
nary, who were the spiritual managers of the fraternity. It would seem to have 
been quite within the province of the Bishop and the clergy to reprimand 
delinquents for disobedience of the rules of the fraternity and neglect of their 
purely religious duties, and even to suspend the members of the confrerie. But 
the Intendant Talon regarded the Bishop's action as an infrigement of the social 
liberty of the citizen, and as a reflection on the character of the entertainment. 
He therefore brought the matter before the Council, and a committee was ap- 
pointed to investigate. The Committee reported that the Carnival entertainment 
had been harmless, and tha subject was then dropped in the Council; but not 
by society in the little town, where the secrecy of the fraternity's meetings gave 
scope for abundant scandalous rumor. The whole incident affords a curious 
example of the extremes to which the leaders of the Church and State will go 
when looking for causes of offense and excuses for a quarrel. 



404 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



The presence of the military had, in the long run, a demoral- 
izing effect on society, though, if we are to credit the Jesuit narra- 
tive, when the Carignan-Salieres Regiment first came out there 
was a veritable revival of religion in the ranks. Talon writes to 
the King that he, Mons. de Tracy, and Courcelle had assisted at 
the abjuration of his heresy by a certain Captain Berthier of the 
regiment, at the hands of the Bishop, and that sixteen soldiers had 
within a month been converted. The effect was not in all cases 
evanescent, for a certain Captain Petit subsequently took holy or- 
ders. Mons. Laval, writing to the Propaganda, names twenty- 
two who had abjured their heresy in the year 1665, and states that 
at least thirty-three of the soldiers who had landed with typhoid 
fever, and had been treated at the Hotel Dieu, had done likewise. 
Many of the Catholics had never been confirmed, and the famous 
regiment had evidently enrolled in its ranks not a few Huguenots. 
The poor fellows landed from the pest ships were not only met 
with kind nursing from the nuns, but found themselves in a re- 
ligious atmosphere such as they had never before breathed. 

Of course, this paroxysm of piety passed like most revivals, 
and the ways of the world which the soldiers introduced became a 
source of great alarm and anxiety to the priests. Some of the 
officers engaged in trade, and the men drank ; and neither officers 
nor men had any scruples in treating the Indians, whether to 
assist a bargain or from sheer good fellowship. And that old sol- 
dier, Frontenac, though a good Catholic and a strict attendant at 
mass — not however at the Cathedral, but across the Place d'Armes 
at the Chapel of the Recollets — one who conducted household 
prayers himself every evening and went into retreat every year, 
adhered to the old tradition that dancing was the best training 
for good marching, and that the soldier was entitled to more than 
ordinary license, as a compensation for the greater risks of his 
profession. The calm old Chateau, therefore, during his two 
terms of office was the scene of more gaiety than it had ever been 
before. 

With a temper so impetuous and methods of government so 
arbitrary, it was inevitable that Frontenac should make enemies; 
but it was unfortunate for his reputation that he quarrelled so bit- 



SOCIAL FOLLIES, 



terly with the higher Church authorities, and that he tried to 
pit one rehgious body against another. It was unfortunate, 
too, that his friends were the comparatively ilHterate Re- 
collets, and his enemies the astute and highly educated Jesuits. 
The result was that he had no literary defenders, and that con- 
sequently there has been handed down, and received as true, 
a whole budget of derogatory stories, affecting not only 
his own but his wife's good name. She was the beautiful, dashing, 
and eccentric Anne de la Grange, one of the Lieutenants and 
Marechalc de Camp of the Grande Alademoiselle, when she 
made her triumphant entry into Orleans during the war 
of the Fronde. A woman so conspicuous, and of so marked a 
character, was sure to be talked about, and notoriety at the Court 
of Louis XIV. was hardly compatible, in the case of a woman, 
with unblemished repute. Saint Simon, the amusing gossip- 
monger of that generation, seems to have disliked Frontenac. He 
always mentions him with disparagement, or faint praise, and 
casts insinuations and shadows of suspicion over the character 
and actions of his brilliant Countess. Calumny even followed his 
mortal remains, for the unauthenticated and improbable tale is 
repeated by standard historians to-day of how Frontenac, upon his 
deathbed, gave instructions that his heart should be sent in a silver 
casket to his wife, and how she indignantly declined to receive it 
on the ground that in life it had never been hers. 

Social manners certainly became freer during Frontenac's ad- 
ministration and they declined rapidly afterwards. Bishop Saint 
Vallier, on his way to Montreal, in 1694, was shocked by gossip 
about the intimate friendship of an officer with a married lady at 
Batiscan, and a quarrel in which a lady's name was involved gave 
rise to a fatal duel in the streets of Quebec. As the regulations 
of the army forbade officers to marry without leave, lefthandecl 
marriages were common ; but it was not until Governor Vaud- 
reuil's time that even the convents were invaded by the prevalent 
levity. Bishop Saint Vallier had to appeal to the Council to use 
its influence to induce Governor Vaudreuil not to enter the con- 
vent himself, and to cease giving authority, as he had been doing, 
to all sorts of persons to disturb the seclusion of the nuns. 



406 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

Madame de Vaudreuil, a Canadian girl by birth, had been 
elevated by her marriage to the rank of marchioness. Through 
Denonville's influence she had obtained the post of under- 
governcss of the Royal Family at Versailles. When she 
returned to Canada she brought back with her some of the man- 
ners of Versailles. She carried her head so high as to be the 
envy of her sex, and, being a woman, made free to enter with her 
suite the nunneries when she listed. And thus the evil grew until 
good Bishop Dosquet, Saint Vallier's successor, had to deplore the 
fact that the religious ladies, to the great scandal of the pious, went 
so far as to attend dinner and supper parties at the Chateau and 
the Intendant's palace. Kalm himself fifty years later prints 
the menu of an excellent dinner given him at the convent of the 
Ursulines, but he does not say whether the religious ladies par- 
took of it with him. To secure peace the ecclesiastical authorities 
had to yield more or less to the officers of State, if we may judge 
by Bishop Dosquet's description of Bishop Saint Vallier's attitude. 



CHAPTER XXII. 



Arrival of Bishop Laval as Bishop of Petraca and 
Vicar Apostolic, and the Creation of a 
Parochial Clergy. 

Before the capture of Quebec by Kirke the Recollet Friars, had 
by dispensation, performed parochial duties in the absence of the 
secular clergy. After its restoration the Jesuits alone, as we have 
seen, were allowed to return, and, for twenty-seven years they 
were the only ecclesiastics performing regular parochial functions 
in the colony. There came out with Champlain in 1634, a secular 
priest, LeSueur de St. Sauveur by name, and we have met Mons. 
Gilles Xicolet, but to neither of them seem to have been assigned 
any stated duties until 1639, when the UrsuHne and Hospital 
nurses arrived. Quarters were assigned to the Hospitalieres in the 
Company's house opposite the Fort, but as the rooms were un- 
furnished, and their bedding was still on board the ship, the 
Abbe Jean LeSueur busied himself in making them as comfortable 
as possible, gathering boughs and sapin branches for their beds. 
Although the branches were found to be full of caterpillars, the 
kind services of the Abbe were appreciated, and the nuns made 
him their chaj)lain, but seemingly not their father confessor. His 
devotion perhaps did not compare favorably with that of the 
Jesuits, for we find that Father Minard replaced him in 1641 as 
chaplain, and acted as confessor for three years, when more active 
duties required liim to resign his post in favor of their original 
spiritual adviser. M. FeSucur is the only secular priest who 
occupied a prominent position in these early days, and his name is 
perpetuated in that of the suburb of St. Sauveur. 

Subsequently there accompanied M. d'Aillebout to Canada 
M. Vignal, another secular priest, as chaplain and father con- 



408 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

fessor to the Ursulines. He seems to have been a quiet, unas- 
suming man, who did his duty unostentatiously and shunned no- 
toriety. The post was a congenial one, and he retained it until 
removed by the energetic Father Queylus, during his short reign. 
Good Father Vignal subsequently fell a victim to the Iroquois. 

With Bishop Laval there came out in 1659 Jean Torcapel and 
Phillipe Pelerin as priests, Henri de Bernieres, a ''simple tonsure/' 
and Charles de Lauson-Charny, who had entered holy orders, 
and of whom we have already heard, as having temporarily held 
the office of Governor after the departure of his Father, M. Jean 
de Lauzon. After that date parish duties in and about Quebec 
were discharged by secular clergymen, but the Jesuits continued to 
perform them at Montreal until the arrival of the Sulpicians in 
1657. 

Canada was favored by sharing most bountifully in the fruits 
of the great religious revival which took place within the Church 
of Rome itself in the seventeenth century. The Ursulines and 
the Sisters of the Congregation as teachers of the young, and the 
Hospitalieres (Nuns of St. Augustine) of the Hotel Dieu, as 
nurses, filled positions which the impecunious Company and the 
needy colonists could not possibly have supplied by paid workers. 
The example thus given of true practical Christianity, appealed 
much more forcibly to the poor white colonists, and the still more 
indigent aborigines, than the secluded self-abnegation of the 
strictly cloistered orders could have done. Both orders were 
creations of the Reformation in its wider sense. We have already 
mentioned the Recollets, who were the first to teach and to prac- 
tice in this remote field and in the hidden recesses of the continent, 
the principles of the Master and of his disciple, the gentle Saint 
Francis. As to the Jesuits who succeeded them it may briefly 
be said that they exhibited a devotion to duty coupled with a 
scorn of danger and of death itself in its most cruel forms, 
which has compelled the admiration of those even who least 
admire their system. The story of the Missions of the Jesuits 
in the seventeenth century, whether in the West or in the East, 
must be allowed to offset a large part of the odium which has 
attached to the Order on account of its unhappy tendency to blend 



THE SULPICIANS AT MONTREAL. 



409 



politics with religion. Perhaps their Canadian missionary annals 
express more truthfully than other chapters of their history the 
real purpose and intent of their remarkable founders. Neverthe- 
less, it must be admitted that they were a serious burden on the 
infant colony, while their Relations distracted attention in France 
from the urgent needs of the French emigrants, fastening it ex- 
clusively on the needs of their own missionary work among the 
aborigines. 

A healthier, if less historically important, outgrowth of the 
Reformation than the Society of Jesus was the Seminary of St. 
Sulpice, in Paris. Here we find a body of earnest and able secular 
priests choosing as their leader and director a man of recog- 
nized saintliness of character, Olier, and pledging themselves 
to follow his principles and rule of life without severing them- 
selves from the general body of the clergy, like the Jesuits, or 
taking monastic vows, like the mendicant orders. M. Olier 
was a contemporary and disciple of St. Francis de Sales 
and St. Vincent de Paul, and while animated by their pity for 
the poor and helpless, he recognized that, if Catholicism was to 
maintain its influence over the educated classes, it must be through 
a highly educated clergy. Becoming the Cure of the large 
parish of St. Sulpice, he gathered around him in the busy Fau- 
bourg of St. Germain a group of scholars devoted primarily to 
educating youths aspiring to the office of the priesthood. 
At one time he longed to become himself a missionary to 
Canada, but though unable to fulfill this wish, he was from the 
first one of the associates of the Montreal Company, and a friend 
of M. de Maisonneuve and Mademoiselle Mancc. Accordingly, 
when in 1-656 M. de Maisonneuve saw reason to fear that the 
Jesuits, who had heretofore fulfilled all the clerical functions in 
Montreal, might not be able to spare a priest much longer, he 
applied to M. Olier for assistance. Tliere is in the complimentary 
reference made by the Montreal Company to the Jesuits, and in 
the reciprocated compliments of the Jesuits, a tliinly discfuiscd 
vein of jealousy. "Re that as it may, M. Olier designated four of 
his colleagues who were willing to undertake tlie liar(1s]iii>s and 
risks of service in Canada. One of these, M. de Queylus, it was 



410 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

suggested, should be consecrated Bishop before leaving, but 
failing to secure this position, he was created Grand Vicaire by the 
Archbishop of Rouen, who claimed Episcopal authority over 
the Canadian Church.* 

That the Jesuits did not frustrate the invasion of their territory 
by the Sulpicians as they had so successfully done in the case of 
the Recollets, may be due, as Suite suggests, to their temporary 
discomfiture in France through the attack of the Jansenrsts under 
Pascal. Ultimately the Sulpicians became the most wealthy 
ecclesiastical body in Canada, for in 1640 M. de Lauson trans- 
ferred to Dauversiere and other founders of the Montreal Com- 
pany, the seignory of Montreal, and in 1663 this Company dis- 
solved voluntarily in favor of the Sulpicians. These ecclesiastics 
thus became, not only independent and self-supporting, but, 
according to the Swedish traveller and writer, Kalm, able to 
remit to their Order in France. 

The Jesuits were ultimately expelled from Canada. The Re- 
collets after the Conquest retired; but the Sulpicians have lived 
through revolutions in France, through changes of government in 
Canada, and through even greater changes in their social sur- 
roundings, and still retain influence both in the Old and in the 
New World through the consistency of their lives with their 
religious profession. 

Renan, who was educated by the Sulpicians in their Seminaries 
at Issy and Paris, and who may be accepted as a candid witness, 
after speaking of the high attainments of some of his professors, 
adds: "But it is not to eminent scholarship that the teachers 
of St. Sulpice attach the highest value. St. Sulpice is above all 
a school of virtue. It is chiefly in respect to virtue that St. Sul- 
pice is a remnant of the past — a fossil two hundred years old. 
Many of my opinions may surprise the outside world because 
they have not seen what I have seen. At St. Sulpice I have seen, 

*The Archbishop of Rouen was also primate of Normandy. The eccle- 
siastical Province of Normandy closely corresponded geographically to the 
lines of the Duchy, and as Brittany owed homage to the Duke of the Nor- 
mans, the primate of Normandy claimed the emigrants from Normandy and 
Brittany across the sea, as within his episcopal province. 



A HOTBED OF MYSTICAL PIETY. 



411 



coupled, I admit, with very narrow views, the perfection of good- 
ness, poHteness, modesty and self-sacrifice. There is enough vir- 
tue in St. Sulpice to govern the whole world. And this fact 
has made me very discriminating in my appreciation of what I 
have seen elsewhere. A future generation will never be able to 
realize what treasures, devoted to the advancement of the welfare 
of mankind, are stored up in those ancient schools of silence, 
gravity and respect." In their humility the Sulpicians have even 
refrained from attaching their names to their writings. Hence 
Dollier de Casson's "History of Montreal" can only be assumed 
to be from his pen, and the Abbe Faillon's ''Histoire de la Colonie 
Frangaise en Canada" is anonymous. The Sulpicians are rather 
a community than an order, being bound together by obedience to 
an idea and by unity of purpose rather than by rigid vows. This 
was true also of another group of devotees in that surging period 
of religious revival — les Filles de la Congregation,'^' to whom 
Canada owes much. 

In the Hermitage of Caen, under M. de Bernieres, there was 
assembled a group of men as profoundly imbued with the spirit of 
expansive Christianity as the Brethren of St. Sulpice, but whose 
zeal exhausted itself in mystical self-communing rather than in the 
practice of useful duties. The bonds created by the mere memory 
of a pious founder and obedience to his mystical precepts, were too 
feeble to hold together his followers for two generations. We have 
met with ^I.de Bernieres as married to, and yet not the husband of, 
Mme. de la Peltrie. and seen how she went with the Ursuline Nuns 
to Canada while he remained in France to administer the finances 
of the institution. t His sister, Gourdaine de Bernieres, was Supe- 
rioress of the Ursuline Convent at Caen, and in the yard of the 
Nunnery his brother built a hermitage to which both clerics and 



*"Les Filles de la Congregation," an associatirvn formed by Marguerite 
Bourgeois in Montreal, was composed of devoted women under mere!}- 
simple vows (voeux simples) in distinction to "voeux solennels." — Charlo 
voix II, Page 95. To-day this order has not fewer than 25,000 pupii'^ 
Bentzon "Notes de Voyage," Page I78. 

tGosselin. in his Life of Laval, supposes the marriage not to have taken 
place. Vol. L Page 79. 



412 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



laymen retired for spiritual intercourse and solemn communing. 
Like Olier, whose book, ''Jo^^^^^ Chretienne," has become for 
his disciples their rule of life, so de Bernieres poured out his soul 
and his conceptions of the duties and destinies of man in a treatise 
entitled ''Le Chretien Interieur," at first pubHshed anonymously. 
As it savored of Quietism, it was placed on the Index till the ob- 
jectionable passages were expunged. 

What renders the Hermitage a spot of interest to us, apart from 
the fact that M. de Bernieres presided over it, is that both Bishop 
Laval and M. de Mezy, nominated by the Bishop himself, as suc- 
cessor to d'Avaugour in the Governorship of Canada, as well 
as de Bernieres' brother, who was subsequently Grand Vicaire 
to the Bishop, were its inmates, and imbibed their religious inspi- 
ration from its atmosphere. Had the discipline of this establish- 
ment been as rigid as that imposed by Loyola on the novices of the 
Society of Jesus, and had de Bernieres' teaching been as specific 
in its injunctions as the "Letter on Obedience" and the "Constitu- 
tions" of the great Founder of Jesuitism, two prominent members 
of the Society could hardly in after life have opposed one 
another so bitterly as Bishop Laval and Governor de Mezy did 
over the question of the respective provinces of Church and State. 

The Canadian Church fortunately had drawn its priests and 
nuns from sources exceptionally pure, and the secular clergy, as 
time went on, identified themselves intimately and disinterestedly 
with the domestic and social life of the people. It was doubtless 
due to these circumstances that the interference of the Church 
did not arouse popular, as well as official, resentment. The 
quarrel was entirely confined to the higher clergy and the 
chiefs of the civil government. The people, in the days of 
Jesuit supremacy, there is reason to believe, fretted under it, 
but after they had secured secular priests and cures, they left 
the struggle between Church and State to those who were more 
immediately affected by the result. The struggle commenced in 
earnest with the arrival in Quebec on June i6, 1659, of Frangois 
de Montmorency-Laval de Montigny, Vicaire Apostolique and 
Bishop of Petraea in partihus iniidelium. 

From a strictly ecclesiastical point of view the presence of a 



NEED FOR A BISHOP 



IX 



CANADA. 



bishop in the country was certainly much required. The Jesuits 
were energetic enough in the performance of their clerical func- 
tions in Quebec itself, but the settlements at Beauport, Beaupre, 
the Island of Orleans and other points near by, whose population 
in 1666 was thrice that of the town, and at an earlier date 
probably proportionately as large, had to be content with their 
occasional ministrations, and with such aid and comfort as they 
received from Messieurs Le Sueur and Nicolet. When ]\Ions. 
de Maisonneuve was in France in 1645 the subject of a Bishop 
for Canada was mooted, and AI. Gauffon (Suite III, page 139), 
an associate of ^lons. Olier, was nominated, but died before 
action could be taken. The matter was not, however, allowed 
to rest. Anne of Austria, according to Charlevoix, is said to 
have favored the Jesuit Father Le Jeune as Bishop ; and at 
another time an agitation was excited in favor of Father Lale- 
mant, by reason of his eminence in the order to which Canada 
was considered to owe so much. But the rules of the Society for- 
bade his accepting a Bishopric, even if the Pope had approved of 
him. 

As the constitution of the Church required that every com- 
munity must be under some Bishop, Father Vimont in 1647 (Jour- 
nal des Jesuites, Aug. 15, 1653, page 185), after consultation with 
his superiors in Rome, obtained from the Archbishop of Rouen a 
patent appointing the Superior of the Jesuit Mission his Vicaire 
General. In connection with this arrangement every possible pre- 
caution was taken for the protection of the Society ; yet Charlevoix 
asserts that the pretensions of that prelate to exercise authority 
over the Church in Canada were not founded on a valid title, and 
that the Bishops of Nantes and LaRochelle held better claim to 
the privilege. However that may be, as long as it was a Jesuit on 
whom power was conferred, the authority of the Archbishop of 
Rouen was never questioned ; but when another Archbishop of 
Rouen appointed the Abbe Qucylus his Grand \^icairc in 1657, 
giving him authority over even the Superior of the Jesuits, though 
the Jesuits submitted, it was with an ill grace, and trouble speedily 
supervened. M. Dollicr de Casson, the Siilpician historian of 
Montreal,, admirably describes the diplomatic expressions of 



414 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

pleasure with which the Jesuit Fathers welcomed the Grand 
Vicaire, and tells us how short-lived was the truce. Father de 
Quen, the Superior of the Jesuits, recognized the Abbe's authority 
at first, and allowed the Jesuit Father Poncet to be confirmed by 
him as Cure of Quebec. But when Father Poncet, as the Abbe's 
app'ointee, acted without authority and permission of his Jesuit 
Superior, Father de Quen, exercising his authority as Superior, 
assigned him to an Iroquois Mission and appointed Father Pijart 
in his place. 

Father Poncet in passing through Montreal reported to the 
Abbe, who in hot haste went down to Quebec and assumed the 
duties of Cure himself. After this there was at best an armed 
peace between the Abbe and the Jesuits. They could not deny 
the Archbishop's authority under which they themselves had 
served, or refuse to recognize his appointee, but they freely used 
their right of criticism, if we may judge from the frequent refer- 
ences to the obnoxious M. Queylus in the Journal, and from a 
letter written by the deposed Father Pijart to M. Lambert, which 
came indirectly under the Abbe's eye, and in which he was de- 
scribed with true theological vigor as a ''worse enemy than the 
Iroquois themselves." Irritated beyond endurance, the Vicar Gen- 
eral used the vantage ground of the pulpit in his own parish 
church from which to attack his detractors. Altogether the Abbe 
was very human in his weaknesses, and his anger was impolitic ; 
but despite his irritable temper he was a thoroughly kind man. 
He flung excommunications against some of his parishoners, who 
were suspected of having burned a neighbor's house, but he flung 
his purse and gave his services generously to the needy. His fiery 
character and unbridled speech were in marked contrast with the 
polite demeanor and imperturbable self-control of his Jesuit co- 
workers, who, despite the bitter feeling expressed in their private 
Journal, refrained from questioning his authority in public, and 
observed a discreet silence respecting him in their Relations. 

One of the Abbe Queylus' first acts of hostility was to serve 
a summons on the Jesuit Fathers to vacate their presbytery, or else 
return the 6,000 livres which the City had contributed towards it 
on the express condition that it should be built as the property 



THE ABBE QUEYLUS AND THE JESUITS. 



of the parish church, a condition with which they had not com- 
pHed, as they had built it as their own. After four months of 
deHberation on the part of the Governor, and of warm debate 
on the subject by the people and their ecclesiastical guides, the 
Abbe was adjudged the 6,000 livres for his presbytery. Never- 
theless, whatever rancor the Fathers might feel, they paid their 
New Year calls on their ecclesiastical chief who had fallen sick and 
could not return them. On his side, when the Fete Dieu came 
round he co-operated with the Jesuits in the procession, and ac- 
cepted an invitation to dine at the Jesuits' table with the Governor. 
Still they were always on the alert to pick a flaw in the Abbe's 
conduct or in his logic, and he was not a man to deny them the 
opportunity. 

On the burning question of the sale of brandy to the Indians 
(Journal, March 31, 1658, page 233), the Abbe at first took the 
commercial and civil view of the question, but later was converted 
to the prohibition and ecclesiastical side. Instead of rejoicing 
and giving him the credit of sincere conversion. Father de Quen 
chuckles over the inconsistency of the Abbe, who, after supporting 
the traffic, had turned round and preached against it, even pro- 
nouncing it a mortal sin to give brandy to a savage, on the ground 
that he never drinks except to get drunk. 

The Abbe could stand their silent taunts and ill-disguised con- 
tempt, but when they produced a patent, probably from the Bishop 
of Nantes or LaRochelle, appointing the Superior of the Jesuits 
Grand \^icaire, he bowed to higher authority, and left Quebec 
for Montreal in company with the Governor, Mons. d'Aillc- 
bout, and his wife. Had his own credentials limited his ecclesias- 
tical control to Montreal and the adjacent districts already under 
the rule of St. Snipice, there would probably not have been 
any trouble, but it was not in human, especially Je'-uit. nature 
to yield to his assum])tion f)f government over a territory which 
had before been so absolutely under their own spiritual and 
political control. 

The Abbe remained with his co-religionists in Montreal for a 
year. ]\Teanwhile, in 165^. P>ishop T.aval arrived to take episcopal 
charge of almost the whole of North America. The dissensions 



4l6 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

among the clergy, and the dominant control exerted by a single 
order of regulars, certainly demanded the presence without delay 
of an ecclesiastical chief, and of a body of secular clergy unat- 
tached to any order or community. The Abbe had either a pre- 
monition or a hint of the attitude the Bishop would assume in 
the quarrel between himself and his rivals, for he came to Quebec 
on August 7 on his way to France. He accepted the hospitality 
of the Fort, and is mentioned as preaching in the Chapel of the 
Hotel Dieu, but not in his own old church — now the Cathedral. 
On the eve of embarking he received a communication, probably 
from the Archbishop of Rouen, which might have emboldened him 
to assert his claims as Grand Vicar; but just as the same juncture, 
the Bishop, whatever his original commission may have been, 
received a letter, giving him episcopal jurisdiction over both Mon- 
treal and Quebec. All Mons. Queylus could do was to bow and re- 
tire from the Colony. He appears twice again in Canada, but for 
only a brief span. Nevertheless he continued to occupy a large 
space in Canada's ecclesiastical history, as the representative of the 
Archbishop of Rouen's claims in his prolonged and bitter contest 
for the episcopal control of Canada. Two years subsequently to 
his defeat by the Bishop he returned (August 3, 1661). The 
Bishop forbade him to go to Montreal. Though he set the order at 
defiance, his resistance was short lived, as he was opposing, not 
only the Bishop, but the King himself. He sailed away in October 
of the same year, to the serious loss of the Colony, which could ill 
aflford to part with a man of so much talent and stubborn inde- 
pendence, whose influence, notwithstanding that he was himself 
an ecclesiastic, would probably have tended to mitigate the exces- 
sive pretensions of ecclesiastical authority. He returned to Mon- 
treal in 1668, but by that time the authority of the Bishop was 
unquestioned in matters spiritual, nor did he attempt to op- 
pose it. 

If the Jesuits could not under the Constitution of their 
Order allow a member to accept episcopal dignity, the Society 
was not forbidden to exert its influence in favor of a candidate; 
and in the selection of Frangois de Montmorency Laval de Mon- 
tigny as Vicaire Apostolique of Canada, and in the bestowal on 



LAVAL SENT OUT AS VICAR APOSTOLIC. 



him of the title of Bishop of Petraea z/z parfibus inHdelium, we can 
recognize the guiding hand of the Society of Jesus, which was as 
strongly opposed to Gallicanism as to Protestantism itself. The 
Pope, in refusing to appoint the Abbe Queylus, who was the 
choice of the French clergy, and in selecting Laval, acted, as he 
claimed, independently, but his preference doubtless coincided with 
that of the Society of Jesus. 

Difficulties and delays innumerable occurred before means 
could be devised of consecrating the Bishop owing to the oppo- 
sition of the Archbishop of Rouen and his friends. As Cardinal 
Mazarin was at least luke-warm in support of his candidature 
the King's consent was secured through the influence of 
the Queen mother. Even after that was obtained, all the in- 
genuity of the Papal Xuncio, Piccolomini, was needed to persuade 
the Archbishop of Paris to permit his consecration within his 
diocese. But, once consecrated, and strong in the conscious- 
ness of Papal support, Laval was prepared for any foe who 
might challenge him. As Vicairc Apostolique he considered 
himself directly answerable to no one but the Pope of Rome. 
His own principles were those of extreme ultramontanism, and 
are well expressed by Abbe Gosselin, the delightful biographer 
both of Laval and of his successor, Saint-\^allier, when he speaks 
of the true Catholic as one who ''knows well that the Church 
to which he has the happiness of belonging is a society immortal, 
infallible and perfectly organized, which holds its mission through 
Jesus Christ himself, and is as superior to the State as the 
soul excels the body; that although these two societies ought 
to remain independent, each occu])\ing its own sphere, yet in- 
asmuch as the interests of the one surpass those of the other, as 
Heaven is higher than the earth, whenever their interests clash, 
the State must submit to the Church." Tn older communities where 
these sweeping premises are sometimes admitted as matter of 
faith, certain precedents and rules are still recognized as deter- 
mining the relative positions of ecclesiastical and state officials, 
and the limits of ecclesiastical interference. But in Canada 
the Bishop entered on his office rosolved to construe literally 
the protestation of every French ruler, from Francis T. onward. 



4l8 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

that the evangelization of the world and the glory of God were 
the. foremost motives of all colonizing schemes. In that new land 
where there were no heretics, and where such weeds as Jansenism 
and Gallicanism, and even Quietism, had been rooted out with 
holy zeal by the Jesuits, there was a better opportunity than in 
France of realizing the ideal of a City of God, where Truth, as 
interpreted by the Church, should be the law, where a rigid 
morality should be enforced by legal penalties, and where the head 
of the State should be guided in all matters pertaining to faith and 
righteousness by the one competent, because divinely inspired, 
authority, the Bishop. Laval, as the scion of an old house and a 
family of warriors, was himself by instinct a fighter. Compromise 
was as hateful to the Montmorency, as to the Churchman it was 
wicked. Advancing to battle, thus formidably equipped, he 
wrestled with Governor after Governor till, under Frontenac, the 
quarrel assumed so grave an aspect as seriously to threaten the 
safety of the Colony. 

While disputing every inch of ground in the interest of his 
prerogatives, the Bishop was founding and organizing a seminary 
for the education of the priesthood, establishing country parishes 
and placing in them men of the same simple-hearted, earnest 
type as those who to-day make the Roman Catholic Church in 
Canada the brightest example to the world of what the system in 
its purity can produce. So whether we admit or not the validity 
of his claims as the anointed of the Lord, or whether we approve 
or disapprove of his methods of warfare, all must applaud the 
courage with which he fought for what he was convinced was 
right, and admit his title to a foremost place among the great 
ecclesiastical educators of the Continent. 

Possessing so strong an instinct of authority, and holding such 
extreme hierarchal views, Laval sided of necessity with the Jesuits 
against the Abbe Queylus. In the exercise of his powers as 
Vicaire ApostoUqiie, he abolished the office of Vicaire General, 
and ordered the Abbe to leave the colony. For a time the re- 
ligious communities hesitated to surrender to the Bishop's 
claim. The Bishop of Petraea was not Bishop of Que- 
bec, and it was not clear exactlv what rights the title conveyed. 



A VIGOROUS ECCLESIASTICAL RULER. 



419 



But whatever doubt they might have on this point, the holder of 
it left no uncertainty in their minds as to his understanding of his 
position and duties ; and before his bold, unhesitating assumption 
of full episcopal dignity and rights, all hesitation and resistance 
soon vanished.'^ He had made good his position, indeed, even be- 
fore the King ordered Governor d'Argenson to publish in the 
Colony his confirmation of the Bishop's appointment, and to expel 
all who refused to submit to his authority, and expressly com- 
manded the Abbe Oueylus not to return to Canada. The quiet- 
ing however of a mere ecclesiastical squabble did not make peace 
in the Colony, for there was the endless quarrel with the Civil 
Power still to be fought out. 

Unable as the people were to foresee the influence for good or 
evil which Mons. de Laval would exert, it must have been a festive 
day in Quebec when the Bishop with his accompanying Clergy ar- 
rived. As they stepped to land on tlie bank where stood the Com- 
pany's house and store, and the mercantile establishments of the five 
hundred inhabitants of the little town, they were greeted by the 
Jesuit fathers, the Governor and staff, and all the notable inhabi- 
tants. We can see them as they wended their way on foot up the 
path, which has been widened into the present Mountain Street, to 
the Church where they were to thank God for their safe voyage, 
and can imagine the effect which the glorious scenery, the strange 
motley crowd of savages, and the complete novelty of the situation 
must have produced on their minds. To Laval himself it must 
certainly have seemed that here was a land of unbounded promise, 
of infinite possibilities for the Church of which he was an instru- 
ment ; nor was he greatly in error if, in prophetic mood, he felt 
assured that with him it rested to give a direction to its growing 
civilization, a stamp to its moral and intellectual development, 
which ages would not wholly eflPacc. 

The Jesuits, in 1647, had commenced building a stone church, 
designed as a basilica, on the site of the present Cathedral, after 

* As Vicatrc Af'OstoUauc lie wns not entitled to the privilepo<; r^f ,i 
Bishop, but held the office and title of a Bishop; there beinp no higher 
authority on the continent, he claimed and maintained his right to Episcopal 
authority. — Gosselin I, page 177. 



420 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

the destruction by fire of Champlain's wooden church of Notre 
Dame de la Recouvrance. It had been opened for service two 
years before the Bishop landed, but was not consecrated until 
1660. 

There was no presbytery, however, still less an Episcopal 
palace. The Abbe Queylus' presbytery, for which he had got a 
judgment of 6,000 francs, had not been built so the Bishop was 
fain to accept the hospitality most gladly offered by the religious 
bodies. We may assume that apartments in the Fort were at his 
disposal, but he wisely judged that social relations with the Gov- 
ernor might afterwards embarass him in his public capacity, and 
restrict his liberty of action ; so after lodging for a few days with 
the Jesuits, he took up his abode in a room of the Hotel Dieu. 
There he remained for three months, but the Hospital being 
crowded, more especially after the arrival in September of the 
plague ship with its fever-stricken passengers bound for Montreal, 
he removed with the three priests who had accompanied him, to 
Madame de la Peltrie's house, which stood near the corner of 
Garden and Donnacana Streets. It was within the confines of the 
nunnery, and was occupied by pupils who had to be transferred to 
the main building. In order to obey the canons of the Order, Mere 
Marie de ITncarnation, the Superior, had to erect a fence to shut 
ofif the Bishop's house and garden from the nunnery grounds. 

The Bishop paid Madame de la Peltrie 200 livres a year rent, 
and kept the house for two years.* He felt, however, that he was 
putting the nuns to inconvenience, and he therefore returned in 



*Mme. de la Peltrie's legal husband was the M. de Bernieres, the 
ascetic mystic who had been Monsieur Laval's spiritual guide. News of 
de Bernieres' death had quickly followed the Bishop to Canada. Had the 
Bishop written his autobiography, with minute and candid reports of con- 
versations, as the writers of his own age were in the habit of doing, and 
had he incorporated in his personal memoirs the conversations between the 
widow and her husband's friend, the memoir would have given a clearer 
insight into the workings of the human mind under such artificial condi- 
tions, than volumes of theological and metaphysical speculation. To render 
the situation more dramatic, M. de Bernieres' own nephew, and therefore 
her nephew, Mons. Henri de Bernieres, was a member of the Bishop's suite, 
consequently one of her own tenants. 



ORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH. 



421 



the winter of 1661-1662 to the Jesuit College. In the spring of 
1662 he and his clergy moved into a small house which he pur- 
chased, probably on the site of the present office of the Fabrique 
in Buade Street, to which, as his biographer states, he trans- 
ferred the rule of life he had practiced at AI. de Bernieres' Hermit- 
age at Caen ; but his heart and his steps turned continually to the 
Hotel Dieu, where he would gladly have ended his days in close 
contact with sickness, sadness, sorrow, and death. 

But to return to the Bishop's early labors. He wasted no time 
before entering seriously on his great mission work. He had the 
wide experience of the Jesuit College to draw upon in his dealings 
with the Indians, and he hastened to rivet his influence over them 
by providing a great feast, which he seasoned by salutary advice 
and hearty encouragement. Before the month was out, prepara- 
tions had been completed for a pontifical grand mass, the gor- 
geous ceremony of which made strong appeal to the red man, 
endowed as he was, and still is, with a keen sense for color and an 
appeciation of graceful gesture and posturing. The mass was 
made the more solemn by the public abjuration of his damnable 
heresy by one of the few Calvinists who had drifted into the 
Colony. Thus the new Bishop was enabled by significant acts 
to express his purpose of maintaining the dignity of the Church, 
the purity of its doctrine, and its charitable methods in dealing 
with the erring and the hungry. 

The Abbe Queylus had begun the good work of organizing 
regular parishes. Among others was that of Ste. Anne at Beau- 
pre, the corner-stone of the foundation of whose famous primitive 
sanctuary was laid by Governor d'Aillebout. It became at once the 
scene of miracles of healing, and to-day the Bonne Ste. Anne 
continues to bless the faithful who appeal to her for relief in the 
sumptuous stone church that has replaced the former humble 
wooden structure. The Bishop had brought out with him some 
secular priests whom he meant to assign to these parishes. He 
was keenly alive to the necessity of organizing the Church on a 
parochial basis. He at once named M. dc Lauson Charny, pres- 
byter and judge in the ecclesiastical council. In August he ap- 
pointed Mons. Torcapel, a secular priest, cure of the parish of 



422 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



Quebec. In recognition of the eminent services of the Sulpicians 
at Montreal, he conferred the same office on one of them, a Mons. 
Souart, who had the merit of appearing to be more submissive 
than his brethren to the authority of the Saint Siege (Holy See), 
as represented by himself. Close as his relations may have been 
with the Jesuits, he did not think it wise to retain them in the ful- 
filment of parochial duties, and consequently relegated them to the 
performance of their proper functions as educators and mission- 
aries to the natives. 

As a member of the Governor's Council, the Bishop within a 
month of his landing received his first lesson in Indian diplomacy 
at the grand council held with the Mohawk ambassadors, who 
came to plead for the release of their tribesmen, held as hostages ; 
and he was perhaps gratified, perhaps bored, by a theatrical per- 
formance given in his honor by the pupils of the Jesuits in their 
chapel. Indian and white scholars took part in these exhibitions, 
which testified, not only to the efficiency of the teaching, but to the 
breadth of the system of Jesuit education, which, while rigid, ad- 
justed itself to the weaknesses of human nature. His sympathy for 
the Indians was early brought into exercise, as we find him paying 
half the ransom for two Iroquois prisoners before he had been 
three months in the country. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



The Breaking Out of the Contest Between the 
Church and the State. 

The first inkling of the Bishop's assertion of the pre- 
eminence of the Church over the State, and of its ministers over 
the officers who wielded civil power, is given in the Jesuits' Journal 
of the December after his arrival. On the eve of the festival of 
St. Xavier the fathers would fain have asked the Governor and 
the Bishop both to dinner, but dare not for fear of fanning into a 
flame the smouldering quarrel over the right to the first place at 
the feast. This Governor, the Viscount d'Argenson, was not 
a very masterful man, yet he was sufficiently proud of his lineage 
and of his office to resent the assumptions of the Bishop. 

The first recorded controversy turned on the trifling question 
as to which of . them should occupy the seat of honor within 
the altar rails. Had Laval been the Bishop of Quebec, and 
not merely Vicar Apostolic, with titular rank as Bishop, the dispute 
could not have arisen. It was settled as the Bishop, who was de- 
termined to be a real Bishop, willed. A further quarrel grew out 
of the midnight Christmas mass. The Governor had heretofore 
been incensed by the Deacon. The Bishop's instructions were 
that he should henceforth be incensed not by the Deacon, but by 
the Thurifer and after the Clergy. The controversy waxed very 
hot. The Governor based his case on precedent, and the text of 
the Ceremonial. The Bishop based his on what he claimed was 
the custom in France. The intention of the Bishop clearly was 
to exalt the claims of the Church above the civil power, and of 
the clergy above the officers of State, more especially when the 
former were performing- their sacred functions in the house of 
God. Some adjustment of the quarrel, we are not told what, was 
brought about by the Jesuits. 



424 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

On Epiphany in 1660, the providing of the Pain Benit fell to 
the soldiers of the garrison, on which occasion they marched from 
the Fort to the offering, with drums beating and fifes playing, and 
in like manner came again to the church at the end of the mass. 
The Bishop was shocked by the interruption and unnecessary 
noise. Nevertheless, when they brought him the chanteau (a 
piece of the Pain Benit offered to the person who was expected to 
preside on the following Sunday), he returned the compliment by 
the gift of two pots of brandy and two pounds of tobacco. 
Though subsequently the Bishop fought valiantly against the 
sale of liquor to the Indians, it is evident that he was not by any 
means a prohibitionist. When it was the Governor's turn to 
provide the Pain Benit, and the drums and fifes again took part 
in the ceremony, the Bishop interposed and insisted that hence- 
forth the Pain Benit must be delivered at the church before the 
mass. In Holy Week the Governor by mistake knelt on the 
Bishop's cushion at the altar rail, and when he discovered the 
error, rather than move to his own, he left the church. Inci- 
dents of this kind must have amused the onlookers, even in 
Holy Week. The Governor, whether from a desire to avoid 
misunderstandings, or from lack of devotion, was not very 
punctual in his church attendance. This may have been the 
Bishop's excuse for striking his name from the list of Honorary 
Churchwardens without notification. The Bishop's own dig- 
nity and position were not in this instance in question, and 
his act bears the appearance of a harsh and arbitrary exercise 
of ecclesiastical authority, admitting that he acted entirely 
within his prerogative. But Bishop Laval never lost an 
opportunity of proving to his flock, not only that he was clothed 
with power, but that he had courage to use it against all who 
opposed themselves. Mons. d'Argenson, people could not help 
remembering, had been the host and friend of the Abbe Queylus. 

It was not only in matters affecting his own pretensions, 
however, that the Bishop went to the very limits of his authority. 
For example, he removed a serving girl from the house of a 
respectable citizen, a M. Denis, and put her in charge of the 
Ursuline Nuns. The only explanation he vouchsafed was that, un- 



A CASE OF DIABOLIC TOSSESSION. 



der the seal of the confessional, he might have become acquainted 
with information that warranted the act. The Journal of the Jes- 
uits in December, 1660, contains the following interesting entry : 
''Barbe Hale was brought from Beauport. She had been for five 
or six months possessed at intervals by a devil. At first she was 
put into a room of the old hospital, where she passed the night in 
the company of a guardian of her own sex, and of a priest and 
attendants." The story is only half told. The other half is 
delightfully narrated by Madame de ITncarnation. It seems 
that there was a certain miller who was adjudged by the Church 
an apostate and a magician. He, by his diabolical arts, had 
bewitched the girl and persuaded her to m.arry him. The proof 
of his intercourse with the devil was that the poor hysterical girl 
declared that he visited her by day and by night, after demons 
had appeared to frighten her. The Bishop sent the Jesuits to 
exorcise the devil, and he himself adopted measures to the same 
end ; but Beauport was so far away that he decided on plac- 
ing the girl under the charge of the Hotel Dieu nuns, and put- 
ting her sweetheart in prison. This treatment, it must be acknowl- 
edged, was mild compared with the fate which would have over- 
taken the pair in New England. The authority of the Qiurch 
in Canada, sagaciously administered by responsible men, had 
at least the effect of restraining such mental vagaries as were 
attributed to witchcraft in New England and Germany, and 
which in those countries were punished by most cruel penalties. 
The Bishop held that neither the crime of witchcraft, nor yet those 
of heresy and blasphemy, fell under the jurisdiction of the civil 
power; and Father Lalemant, in i66t, tells us that the quarrel 
between the civil and ecclesiastical authorities came nearly to 
extremities over a sentence passed, probably by the Bishop's 
ecclesiastical tribunal, on a certain Daniel Vvil. He, perhaps, 
was the heretic who had renounced his errors so opportunely 
and dramatically on the occasion of the Bishop's first mass; 
if, so, he now figured in another act, for shortly after Hov- 
ernor d'Argenson handed over his cares and his quarrels to his 
successor, d'Avaugour, poor Daniel Vvil was summarily shot for 
having relapsed into heresy, and another was shot for the 



4^6 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

crime of selling brandy to the Indians. The Bishop was no 
advocate for half measures when moral suasion proved ineffective. 

Before Governor d'Argenson left Canada one unseemly insult 
had followed another. In February, on a public occasion, the 
children who were acting in some performance were assigned 
parts which kept their hands so busy that instruction was 
given them not to salute either the Governor or the Bishop, both 
of whom were present. Two little urchins, however, by direction 
of their father, saluted the Governor to the great offense of the 
Bishop, for which they were soundly flogged by their spiritual 
fathers. Immediately after this incident, the Governor's suite, 
"so-called gentlemen," as Father Lalemant sneeringly calls them, 
took their place in a procession after the Governor and in advance 
of the churchwardens. This led the Bishop to forbid all future 
processions. It would have been well if the prohibition had re- 
mained in force, but on the Fete Dieu a public procession took 
place, as previously. A temporary altar stood before the Fort. 
The Bishop had requested that the soldiers take off their hats on 
the approach of the Host, and to this the Governor, who was ill 
and not present, consented ; but when the procession was approach- 
ing the Bishop further insisted that the soldiers kneel, on pain of 
his passing and not exposing the Host upon the altar. Knowing 
that his consent would be interpreted as a relinquishment of 
his military command into the hands of the Bishop, the Gov- 
ernor refused and the Bishop accordingly executed his threat. 

Terrible events were meanwhile transpiring in the Colony, 
which was never nearer destruction at the hands of the Iroquois 
than at that moment. That the Bishop would in such a crisis 
have intentionally weakened the military and civil influence of 
the Governor is not to be believed, for the Bishop was a patriot ; 
yet he was possessed with such an almost fanatical belief in the 
sacredness of his office, and so unquestioning a reliance on divine 
guidance, that he was blind to the consequences of his acts. He 
had yet to learn that, even in a colony swept clean of heresy, there 
might be a certain spirit of defiance of, if not disbelief in, ecclesi- 
astical authority; and that, unless the civil power co-operated in 
maintaining moral order, the ecclesiastical authority, appealing 
only to the conscience, might fail. 



M. d'avaugour succeeds m. d'argexsox as goverxor. 427 

If Governor d'Avaugour, d'Argenson's successor, consented, 
immediately on entering on his office, to the execution of Molette 
and another culprit for selling liquors, he speedily repented, for in 
January and February Father Lalemant records in the Journal 
that there was no little noise over the permission granted by the 
Governor to sell liquor to the Indians. D'Avaugour was a just 
man, and of inflexible determination and consistency. After hav- 
ing inflicted the death penalty on one culprit, and listened to the 
violent denunciations launched by the Bishop against all who 
sold brandy to the Indians, he was not prepared for a sudden 
change of policy, when Father Lalemant pleaded with him for 
a French woman convicted, on full evidence, of the same crime. 
In the eyes of the Governor the kindly motive of the suppliant was 
no excuse for his inconsistency. Not only was the request vehe- 
mently refused, but, identifying opposition to the liquor trade with 
ecclesiastical ultra-pretensions, the Governor came to regard the 
moral and humanitarian position of the Bishop and his clergy as a 
mere pretext for the usurpation of authority belonging to the civil 
power. D'Avaugour was utterly indiflferent and careless as 
to the trifling matters of precedence which had so worried his 
predecessor. As far as he was concerned, in these the Bishop 
might have his own way : he was quite willing to walk after the 
churchwardens, or to let the soldiers both kneel and take oflF their 
hats to the Host ; for his part he was girding up his loins to fight 
the Bishop on what he regarded as a more weighty issue. He 
began by what in modern parlance would be called packing the 
Council. Of his own authority he removed certain members and 
appointed others, replacing even the syndics, and also made other 
innovations. He was preparing to fight the Bishop a ou trance 
on a question — that relating to the sale of brandy — on which the 
latter could command but little support in the Colony. With a 
quick perception of the situation, Laval took ship for France in 
August. iT/")!. to plead his cause at th.o foot of the throne. .So 
effectually did he do so, thnt he returned to his diocese in thirteen 
months, with d'Avaugour's recall in his wallet, and with a Gov- 
ernor of his own choosing in his trnin — the Clu'vnliiT de M;'7\-. 
One of Governor d'Avaugour's moves to weaken the influence 



428 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



of the Jesuits and the Bishop in the Council had been the sup- 
pression of the office of the City syndic, who had a seat, and who 
sided with the priests. It was an unwise, as well as an irregular 
act, for in so doing, he deprived the city of its municipal chief, 
and disorganized what little local government existed, and 
consequently the machinery for the suppression of crime. In 
the winter of 1663 thieving was rife, and in one case, in which 
the thief, to cover his crime, set fire to a house, the death 
penalty was inflicted. The priests attributed the frequency of the 
crime to the disregard of the Bishop's excommunication of those 
who sold liquor. A more natural explanation might have been 
found in the weakening of the civil power, owing to dissension 
between the Governor and the Bishop. The Governor had been 
publicly insulted in his person and in his office, and the Bishop 
was known to be in France using every effort to supplant him. 
The situation was one well adapted to encourage the criminal 
classes. 

On the i6th of September, 1663, the King's ship brought back 
the Bishop, and with him the new Governor. The Chevalier de 
Mezy had been one of the Bishop's companions in the Bernieres 
Hermitage at Caen, and was the nominee of the Jesuits and the 
Bishop's own choice. In the instructions given two years after- 
ward to the Intendant Talon, he is told that it was due to the com- 
plaints of the Jesuits that Sieur d'Avaugour had been recalled, 
and that the king, in order to satisfy them, had further allowed 
them to nominate his successor. The dispatch goes on to narrate 
how their choice fell on de Mezy, who they had no doubt would 
act in conformity with their wishes; but that they had made a 
mistake, for, when once in power, he gave free rein to his pas- 
sions, his greed, etc., etc. 

Thus the Bishop, in the eyes of the people must have appeared 
to be endowed with the powers of a Minister of State, able to make 
and unmake viceroys ; and the prelate himself, we may be sure, 
did not put any lower estimate on his own influence. What tran- 
spired during de Mezy's short administration to transform the 
friendship existing between him and the Bishop into bitter enmity 
is not clearly recorded ; but that veracious document, the 



YET ANOTHER GOVERNOR IN TROUBLE. 



429 



Jesuits' Journal, indicates at least the progress of the alienation. 

The Governor and the Bishop arrived together. On the feast 
of St. Xavier they dined with the Jesuits in their refectory on 
refectory fare. On the first of January the Governor and the 
Bishop take part in the Vespers procession, and the Governor 
invites the Bishop to dine with him, but not the Superior of the 
Jesuits, though he (Father Lalemant) and the Governor's con- 
fessor, Father Pijart, had made their customary New Year call. 
Almost the next entry tells of the breaking out of trouble over 
the payment of tithes, and then follows a reference to public dis- 
order in the way of drunkenness and to the blasts and counterblasts 
of the Bishop and the Governor over the sale of liquor to the 
Indians. 

The mention of the Governor's name at high ecclesiastical 
functions is now dropped ; and as the alliance between the Bishop 
and the Jesuits was known to be close, it was probably deemed 
wise as a concession to public opinion, and as a proof of the inde- 
pendence of the Bishop, that all the secular clergy should leave 
the Jesuits' quarters. Personally the relations of the quondam 
friends had become so strained that the two would not even travel 
together. On the 25th of April, 1664, Father le Moyne returned 
from the Iroquois country, bearing the report of an important 
negotiation. The Bishop started next day for Three Rivers and 
Montreal, the Governor following two days subsequently. By 
September open war was declared. The Jesuits claimed that the 
Governor was acting under the instigation of Peronne Dumesnil, 
the agent of the extinguished Company of the One Hundred Asso- 
ciates. We know that he arbitrarily dismissed from the Council 
Bourdon, de Villeray, and d'Auteuil, because they sided with 
the Bishop against himself on tlic tithes question. Such action 
was not only arbitrary, but unconstitutional. His next step 
was even more prejudicial to himself in the eyes of the King, 
when the proceedings were reported. He had the astounding folly 
to propose to the Bishop that the successors of the deposed C(Mincil- 
lors should be elected by popular vote. This of course the Bishop 
refused to agree to. Bourdon, one of the deposed Councillors, 
sailed on the 21st of September to lay the case before tlic 



430 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

King. On the 24th the Governor nominated new Councillors. 
The Bishop protested. On the 28th the Governor published the 
names of the new Councillors. On November ist the Bishop 
instructed Mons. Pommier to denounce him and his illegal acts 
from the pulpit, and to fulminate against him a decree of excom- 
munication. The instruction was obeyed and the Governor's 
Jesuit confessor, being bound to respect the excommunication, 
could neither accept his Excellency's confession nor grant him 
absolution. 

The quarrel had been carried into municipal affairs, and the 
inhabitants of the town all became participants. The people 
elected as their syndic a M. Charron, He was persuaded to 
resign, on the pretext that he was a merchant, but really through 
clerical pressure, because be was a friend of the Governor. 
Party feeling thereupon ran so high that the next attempt 
at an election failed. In the third, which was attended by some 
irregularities, a Mons. Lemire, a friend of the Governor, was 
elected, and a protest was lodged by the Bishop's adherents 
in the Council, led by M. de Charny as the Bishop's repre- 
sentative. The Bishop kept his temper — the Governor lost 
his. Technically the Bishop was in the right; at the same time 
he took the most ingenious means of exasperating his foe. To 
pray for your enemies in private is laudable ; praying for them as 
sinners publicly is to insult them. It is a weapon which exists only 
in the armory of the Church, and the Bishop used it freely and 
without scruple. 

Still, on New Year's day of 1665, the usual courtesies were 
observed. The Jesuits called on the Governor, although, as Father 
Lalemant remarks, "he was on bad terms, not only with them, but 
with all the priests." The Governor, not to be backward in cour- 
tesy, sent his Major to return the call, and took the opportunity of 
forwarding by him the vouchers for the Jesuits' allowance, which 
he had for some time held back. The Governor's health was fail- 
ing. During Lent he became so seriously ill that he was removed 
by his own wish to the hospital of the Hotel Dieu. As death ap- 
proached he sought the good offices of the Jesuits, and through 
them made peace with his enemy. The ban was removed ; he con- 



THE CHARACTER OF DE MEZY. 



fessed, received absolution, and died in odour of sanctity on May 
7th. He was buried in the common burying ground of the Hotel 
Dieu, in conformity with his own request as expressed in his will, 
but no doubt with such state and circumstance as the Church with 
its limited resources could muster to do honor to a vanquished and 
repentant sinner. On this point, however, the Relations and the 
Journal are both silent. 

Thus the second French Governor who died in office lies in an 
unmonumented grave. In trying to estimate the character of the 
Governor and to render judgment between him and the Bishop, 
due account must be taken of the ambiguities of the Constitution 
which they were trying to put into force, and which left their 
respective positions dangerously indefinite. In the constitution 
of the Sovereign Council and the prominent place assigned to the 
Bishop — a rank almost co-ordinate with that of the Governor 
himself — we clearly see the influence of the Queen Mother whose 
papal connections caused her to take very strongly the side 
of ecclesiastical authority. Laval was probably not exceeding his 
powers, nor yet the private instructions given him when he took 
out de Mezy almost as a member of his ecclesiastical establish- 
ment. But many years of this joint, but really disjointed, civil- 
ecclesiastical rule had not elapsed before Colbert, with the clear 
vision of a statesman, recognized the impossibility of maintaining 
order and prosperity, where elements so irreconcilable were yoked 
together in the work of administration. As early as 1667 the 
Minister found himself regretting that the Bishop had a seat in 
the Council. 

De Mezy, it is evident, was an impulsive, enthusiastic, ill-bal- 
anced man. In his youth he is said to have been wild. License 
was succeeded by austerity, and as Laval's companion and fellow- 
inmate of the Caen Hermitage, he showed himself so ol)e(lient 
to authority that, when the selection of a Governor for Canada 
was virtually entrusted to Laval, he selected him as likely to be 
completely submissive to his episcopal dictation in the new 
state, the Constitution of which the Bishop himself had framed. 
But the Bishop had not counted on another phase of his friend's 
character — a stubborn obstinacy and unreasonable suspicion, 



432 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

coupled with a temper violent when aroused. The Bishop was 
no less obstinate than the Governor, but he had been educated in 
a Jesuit College. He had learned the first lessons of the astute 
code of the Society of Jesus — absolute obedience to your Superior 
and control over yourself. In Canada he recognized no superior. 
The thought of his high and sacred office completely dominated 
his mind, and with calm, unflinching determination he carried 
out his duty as he understood it. He was obeying the dictate of 
Heaven, as revealed to and formulated by himself. That he was 
doing irreparable injury to the Colony by weakening pubHc respect 
for the law, in the person of its chief representatives, would not 
have arrested him in his course, even could he have appreciated 
the fact. That such was the case was proved by the increase in 
the Indian liquor traffic, despite the re-enactment of the prohibi- 
tions, with the approval of the Governor, who agreed in this re- 
spect with the Bishop. De Mezy was palpably in the wrong, and 
yet so maddened was he by the calm and exasperating acts of his 
foe, that we cannot but pity him. Had de Mezy been the only 
Governor with whom the Bishop quarreled, we might attribute the 
fault entirely to him ; but no, he was only one in a succession of 
Governors with all of whom the same Bishop either had quar- 
reled or was destined to quarrel on one plea or another. Unless 
the civil Governor would bow implicitly to his will and opinion, 
no matter what the question at issue, he would use against him all 
the artillery of the Church. To doubt his own infallibility on cer- 
tain questions never occurred — could not occur — to him. To win 
over his enemy by propitiatory tactics was not in his nature. The 
charity which suffers long and is kind was not a characteristic of 
Canada's first Bishop, at this period of his life. 

The reports made by the Bishop of the Governor's misdeeds, 
confirmed by Bourdon's personal appeal to the King for redress, 
led to de Mezy's recall. M. de Courcelle, who came out as his 
successor, M. de Tracy, who was appointed to the still higher office 
of Viceroy and Lieutenant-general of all the possessions of 
France in the New World, and the Intendant Talon, were com- 
missioned to investigate the charges against him, and, if they were 
found true, to send him under arrest to France. He had died 



VICEROY^ GOVERNOR, AND INTEXDAXT. 



433 



before their arrival ; but it is not probable that they would have 
found him guilty of any crime punishable by a more serious forfeit 
that loss of his office, and of that he had already been deprived. 
The new rulers themselves had not been long in the country before 
the Governor at least commenced to smart under the thraldom of 
his ecclesiastical colleagues in the Council ; and it required all 
the tact of his associates to prevent a recurrence of the disorders 
they had come out commissioned to correct. Colbert had to warn 
the Governor to behave with tenderness towards everyone, and to 
restrain his irritation, and not cast blame publicly on the actions 
of the Bishop. Talon, the Intendant, having Galilean tendencies 
was impatient under the yoke. The deposed members of the 
Council were nevertheless restored, and only one of de IMezy's ap- 
pointees, de la Tesserie, was re-appointed. Bourdon was made Pro- 
cureur General, and de \'illeray Deputy Chairman of the 
Council. By this action the chiefs of the State justified the Bishop 
and the Jesuits and condemned de Mezy, who, there can be little 
doubt, was carried by his passionate narrowness into committing 
acts of injustice, when he accepted Dumesnil's indictment of 
friends of the Bishop and of the priests without sufficient investi- 
gation and proof. 

The first friction between the new Governor and the ecclesi- 
astical authorities occurred after de Courcelle's unfortunate and 
ill-advised winter expedition against the Iroquois. He was to 
have been joined by a large party of Algonquins. As they 
failed to keep their engagement, and thus left him without guides, 
the enterprise ignominously failed. The Governor blamed the 
Jesuits for the perfidy of their converts, and the Intendant sided 
with him in his opinion or his prejudice. Whether he was 
right or not is incapable of determination, but the incident 
afifords proof, if proof be needed, of the incongruity of using 
ministers of religion to conduct negotiations of State, and of the 
complications which are almost sure to ensue. The Jesuits had 
been used as instruments of statecraft in the dealings of the 
colonial Government with both the Iroquois and the Algonquins. 
Even Lahontan admits that their intimate knowledge of the 
Indian languages and of Indian customs made the enlistment of 



434 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



their services almost a matter of necessity. At the same time, by 
accepting such commissions, they exposed themselves to blame 
which often should have rested on the perfidious savages v^ith 
v^^hom they had to deal. 



i 
I 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

Laval as Bishop of Quebec, and the Tithes 
Question. 

Th€ Marquis de Tracy came out as Viceroy to hold office only 
temporarily, his special mission being- to restore peace and estab- 
lish equilibrium between the Church and the State. At that 
time, when the influence of the Queen Mother and her Jesuit 
directors was paramount, it was expected that these two forces 
would combine to enable France to fulfill in America her double 
mission of empire-builder and evangelizer. As long as the per- 
sonal influence of the Viceroy was exerted, Courcelle as Gov- 
ernor and Talon as Intendant maintained an attitude of respectful 
deference to the ecclesiastical power ; but neither during his first 
nor his second administration could Talon reconcile himself to the 
pretentions of Laval, while Courcelle was overtly hostile to 
both the Bishop and the Jesuits. It w^as in consequence doubtless 
of the opposition they manifested that the Bishop wrote to the 
Propaganda shortly after his departure from Canada, in 167 1 : "T 
have learned by long experience how little weight the title of 
Vicar Apostolic carries with those charged with the political busi- 
ness of the king's colony. I mean the officers of Court, who 
are perpetually at odds with, and casting contempt on, the 
ecclesiastical power, objecting that the authority of a Vicar 
Apostolic is a doubtful quantity and should be kept in check. 
This is the reason why, after mature consideration, I have come 
to the conclusion to throw u]) my charge and not return to New 
France, unless I am created a Bishop, and unless fortified by 
bulls constituting me the Ordinary. This is the purpose of my 
journey to France, and this my earnest prayer." 

Thus he wrote prior to 1671, though in the previous year 



43^ QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

Quebec had been erected into a town by the Consistorial 
Congregation, and its parish church made a Cathedral. The 
French Court was anxious that he should be created a Bishop, 
with full episcopal powers ; nevertheless three years of negotiation 
between the See of Rome and Louis XIV intervened before his 
consecration took place. The difficulty grew out of the revival 
of the old claims of the See of Rouen to exercise episcopal juris- 
diction in Canada. The Crown of France wanted to bind the 
new colony, ecclesiastically, through its Bishop, to a French 
archiepiscopal see. The Pope refused to nominate a Bishop, 
unless he were made directly responsible to the See of Rome, 
and unless the new diocese were placed on a footing which 
would preclude any such claims to local independence as were 
then being mooted by the Church in France. The King had ulti- 
mately to yield to the Pope, and subsequent events justified in 
great measure the wisdom of the papal contention ; for when the 
country passed from the dominion of France to that of Great 
Britain, the transfer caused no such complications as would have 
resulted had the Church in Canada been subject to Gallican juris- 
diction. 

It was September, 1675, before Bishop Laval returned to Que- 
bec as its Bishop. Notable changes had taken place during his 
absence. Governor de Courcelle had been recalled three years 
before ; Canada had greeted in his place Louis de Buade, Comte 
de Frontenac, a man who meant to be Governor in reality, and not 
merely in name; the Intendant Talon had taken his departure 
a month or two after the new Governor's arrival. The latter had 
been carrying things with a high hand. Two priests had already 
been thrown into prison. The first of these was Mons. Morel, who 
exercised curial functions on the South Shore ; his offence was re- 
fusing to recognize the jurisdiction of the Council when summoned 
to answer for alleged irregularities committed by himself and his 
churchwardens. The second was the Abbe Fenelon, a Sulpician, 
elder brother of the great Fenelon, who siding with Mons. Perrot, 
the Governor of Montreal, in a contest which he was waging with 
the Governor General, had denounced Frontenac from the pulpit 
as a tyrant. Having in consequence been cited before the Coun- 



LAVAL AS BISHOP OF QUEBEC. 



437 



cil, he appeared, but merely to deny its right to try him; and 
so he followed Mons. Morel to prison. Alons. de Bernieres, 
the Bishop's representative had also been summoned before 
the Council to give evidence in the Fenelon case. He obeyed 
the summons, but claimed his right to the Bishop's seat. Fron- 
tenac refused to recognize the claim on the plea that Mons. de 
Tracy had altered the constitution of the Council, and that 
neither the Bishop nor his representative had for years taken 
part in its deliberations. In this case, however, the Governor 
did not go to the length of imprisonment. Matters had reached 
a deadlock, owing to the indisposition of the Council to render 
definite judgment, and the whole case had been referred 
to the King. Frontenac had been appointed while Laval was 
still in France, and his masterful and domineering character 
must have been well known to the Bishop. The idea seems 
a plausible one that he was chosen by Colbert to counteract the 
power of the Church : so that while the King was with one hand 
strengthening the position of Laval, he was, with the other, 
signing the commission of a Governor, who was expected to 
prevent any ecclesiastical encroachment on the province of the 
State. 

The contest between Laval and d'Avaugour over questions of 
precedence, and that between the Bishop and de Mezy over tithes 
and the appointment of councillors, were mere skirmishes com- 
pared with the battle which was now imminent. The prospect of 
a fight with an adversary like Frontenac must have impelled 
Laval to hurry back to his see. During his absence sad gaps 
had been made in the little group of his intimate and 
sympathetic friends. The first generation of the makers of 
Canada was passing away. He had probably helped to lay 
to rest, just before sailing from France, the remains of the 
great Cardinal's niece, the Duchess d'Aiguillon. Madame de 
la Peltrie, that charming embodiment of religious devotion 
and impulsive generosity, whose house was at everyone's dis- 
posal, had breathed her last in November, 1671, in the nunnery 
of the Ursulines, of which she was the lay founder. Less than 
six months later she was followed to the grave by her devoted 



438 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



partner, the Mere Marie de I'lncarnation, the first Lady Superior 
of the UrsuHnes. It often happens that the closest friends differ 
diametrically in disposition; and it may, therefore, have been 
because of their wide diversity of character that these two 
Pious women remained through life such ardent admirers of 
each other's virtues, and co-operated so actively, though by oppo- 
site methods, in the same noble work — the one almost too busy 
in worldly affairs, the other almost a mystic ; the one winning the 
Indians by her solicitude for their temporal welfare, the other 
attracting them to herself and the Church, through the same 
quietness of spirit and demeanor, and the same proneness to 
dreams and ecstatic visions, which are conspicuous in the 
Indian's own character. The latter, notwithstanding the touch of 
exaltation in her character, was a woman of rare good sense, 
whose letters are more valuable as sources of contemporary his- 
tory than even the Relations of the Jesuits. They describe simply 
but graphically what was occurring in the little community, every 
event of interest in which was known and well talked over within 
the walls of the nunnery before being written down for the en- 
lightenment and edification of her dear son, Claude Martin. They 
were not indited, as were the Relations, for the purpose of exciting 
emotion or of drawing pecuniary contributions from the devout 
laity of France. 

These were not the only losses sustained by the religious com- 
munity of Canada. In the year following the translation of 
Mere de ITncarnation there passed away Pere Jerome Lalemant, 
who had been twice Superior of the Canadian mission ; had spent 
years in active service with the Hurons before their dispersion ; 
had crossed and recrossed the sea to plead for the Indians in 
France ; and had for the last time returned to Quebec with Bishop 
Laval himself in 1659, when sixty-six years old. He was seventy- 
two years old before he resigned the office of Superior for the 
last time to Father Mercier. The entries in his journal bespeak 
a growing querulousness rather than the mellowness of spirit 
which we like to think of as associated with advancing years. Nev- 
ertheless, he was doubtless to many others what Mere de ITncar- 
nation said he was to her — ''Of all men in the world the one 



THE RECOLLETS RE-ESTABLISHED IX CANADA. 



439 



to whom she owed the most for his spiritual advice," — one also, 
as she further acknowledges, from whom she had received valua- 
able worldly counsel in the establishment and management of her 
nunnery. To Laval, ignorant of the characteristics of the native 
races, and of the temper of the colonists, Lalemant's conversa- 
tion on their long sea voyage, and his counsel in many trying 
dilemmas afterwards, must have been invaluable and most wel- 
come. It may be doubted at the same time whether his advice 
was always for the best, for Lalemant's predilections and opinions 
harmonized too completely with the Bishop's to fit him for a 
peacemaker. Xow he was gone — with his eighty years of ex- 
perience and his deeply implanted prejudices — and the Bishop 
himself was growing too old to make any more close friends. 

A still more picturesque figure disappeared during the same 
period — Mdlle. Jeanne Mance, one of the lay founders of the 
Hotel Dieu of Montreal, who had braved all the dangers of the 
Iroquois war, when Montreal was protected by nothing better than 
a stockade. She, however, was a figure with which Quebec was 
but little familiar. 

It did not help to console the Bishop for the loss of so many 
of his old friends to find the Recollet Fathers, whom he had been 
obliged to welcome by order of the King before his departure, in 
favor alike with the people and the civil powers. The Francis- 
cans had never abandoned their hope of returning to their 
work, and re-entering on the possession of their property 
in Canada. The Company of the One Hundred Associates, 
however, considered that the payment of a subsidy to one 
religious body was burden enough ; while the Jesuits naturally 
preferred not to share the glory of converting the continent 
with the members of an order with which, though it had 
given to the Church many saintly lives, they had few points of 
similarity, and consequently only a moderate degree of sym- 
pathy. Still the Jesuits were not universally popular, and thus, 
while the friars on one side of the Atlantic longed to return, 
there was a large section of the people on the other which as 
heartily wished to see their sandaled feet treading again the banks 
of the St. Charles. Tradition remembered their ecclesiastical rule 



440 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



as mild compared with the iron thraldom of the Bishop and his 
Jesuit co-laborers. Doubtless the laxity of the earlier regime 
was exaggerated in memory, while the grievances of the pres- 
ent were aggravated by political feeling and party dissension. A 
certain section of the people had always been disposed to be 
restive under priestly dominance, and these, since the time of de 
Lauzon, had formed a more or less coherent party, sympathizing 
with the Governor in his quarrel with the Church. 

The imposition of tithes which was popularly regarded as a 
piece of ecclesiastical robbery, had helped to bring about the re- 
turn of the Recollets. Some of the old inhabitants remembered 
the mendicant friars who had lived and labored among them with- 
out demanding tithes or fees, to say nothing of enforcing them by 
process of law, and they asked to have them back. Mons. Talon 
had been only too glad in this instance to obey the popular voice, 
and exert his influence for their recall, hoping to use them as 
a buffer against the Bishop and his allies. Consequently, when he 
returned to France at the expiry of his first term of office, in 1668, 
he secured the assent of the King to the return of the Recollets, and 
induced His Majesty to embody it in an edict, in which they were 
bidden to resume their duties, and authorized to re-enter on the 
possession of their property in Canada. The first detachment of 
the Fathers sent out suffered shipwreck and all were lost; but in 
1670 Pierre Germain Allard, Provincial of the Order, himself 
accompanied three friar priests, a deacon Frere Luc, renowned 
as a painter, and a convers, m order to see them installed at 
their work in their old monastery, and to secure for them such a 
reception by the civil and ecclesiastical authorities as the King's 
support and their former labors in the country entitled them to. 

When they arrived Courcelle was still Governor, and was as 
strongly opposed to the Bishop as the lingering influence of his 
official guide and mentor, M. de Tracy, allowed him to be. Laval 
was still Vicar Apostolic, and grieving that the lack of full epis- 
copal dignity derogated from his influence. The Governor and his 
colleague, the Tntendant, were not disposed to use the Friars offen- 
sively against the Jesuits or the secular clergy, and the Recollects 
themselves were religiously intent only on preparing themselves, 



THE RECOLLETS ANTAGONIZE THE BISHOP. 



441 



by learning the native language, and familiarizing themselves 
with the country, to re-engage in the missionary work which 
they had so successfully inaugurated more than half a century 
before. Subsequently their attitude toward the Bishop changed. 
Having no independent sources of revenue, they lived by beg- 
ging, or, to speak euphemistically, by accepting voluntary contribu- 
tions. All countries, however, where such professional ecclesias- 
tical mendicants have become numerous, have found that, after the 
first flush of real religious enthusiasm has waned, the work 
actually done by them is quite as costly as that performed by the 
paid clergy, if not more so. But just as people are ready to pay 
more in indirect taxation for the support of the State than they 
would be willing to contribute in direct assessment, the amount of 
which on each occasion they are distinctly aware of, so there is 
a seeming advantage in the gratuitous enjoyment of spiritual 
ministrations by beings so saintly that they live on nothing. Sooner 
or later it is discovered that there is an underlying fallacy some- 
where. Italy and Spain and all the former dependencies of 
the latter country have made the discovery to their cost. Canada 
was saved by the strong sense of Bishop Laval from the inroad of 
the monks, and this is one of the blessings for which the Church 
and people of Canada have to thank him. He was as austere and 
simple in his mode of life as they, but he wished to see the church 
placed on a sound financial footing, and with that mendicacy was 
incompatible. 

It was, however, not only in their pretence of rendering ser- 
vice without remuneration that the Recollets ran counter to the 
Bishop's plans. When the feud broke out between Frontenac, 
as champion of the rights of the State, and Duchesneau, who 
came to Canada as Tntendant in 1675, and who, owing his ap- 
pointment to Bishop Laval, was entirely on the side of the 
Church, the Recollets became ardent partisans of the Governor, 
professing their obligation to obey his commands, even if tlicy 
contradicted those of the Bishop. They carried the controversy 
into the pulpit, to the great indignation of the Bishop, who seem- 
ingly forgot that he had himself used the same unassaila1)le plat- 
form from wln'ch to attack Frontenac's less powerful and resource- 
ful predecessor, Mezy. 



442 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

An instance of this occurred when Laval appointed a certain 
local friar, Father Adrian, to preach the Advent sermon in 
the Cathedral. The preacher in his discourse more than hinted 
at his disapproval of the alliance of the Jesuits and the secular 
clergy v^ith the Intendant, Duchesneau, against the Governor; 
whereupon the Bishop called him to account, and imposed silence 
on him in regard to matters not affecting morals or doctrine. 
The episcopal admonition was not received, however, with per- 
fect submission, for the preacher claimed that, once in the pulpit, 
he was under the inspiration of a higher power than even the 
Bishop, and dared not refrain from uttering the message en- 
trusted to him by the Spirit. 

While the Recollets were thus asserting their independence, 
preaching and administering the sacraments beyond the hmits pre- 
scribed by the Bishop, and bringing the parochial clergy into dis- 
favor, they were, despite their vows of poverty, accumulating 
considerable property. On their return, their first effort was to 
restore their monastery of Notre Dame des Anges, which grew 
rapidly into large proportions. As it was a mile and a half, 
however, from the center of the town, they petitioned the King 
for a lot in the upper town on which to build a hospice, where the 
sick of their own order would be nearer medical assistance than on 
the banks of the St. Charles. This petition was granted in 1681, 
and a large lot, known as the '"emplacement de la Senechaussee," 
covering part of the enclosure now occupied by the English Cathe- 
dral and also a part of the Place d'Armes, was given them. The 
Bishop's Grand Vicar, Mons. de Bernieres, and Mons. Soiiart, a 
Sulpician from Montreal, assisted in the official act of taking pos- 
session ; and the Bishop, not without serious misgiving, consented 
to the erection of the hospice, but only on the conditions attached 
to the grant by the King, namely, that it should be used solely for 
the treatment of the sick of the Order, and that mass should be 
said with doors closed to the pubHc. But the Recollets were expert 
financiers. The King allowed them the small sum of 1,200 livres 
for their support, on express condition that they forbore to beg; 
and they not only succeeded in living on this trifling sum, but in 
building a monastery and a church on the site of the unpretentious 



A ''hospice" that developed. 443 

hospice. La Tour, Laval's first biographer ("]\Iemoire sur la vie 
de Mons. de Laval, Cologne, 1761,") gives a terse account of the 
wonderful development of this humble hospice. "A beginning 
was all that was needed. Every germ is fertile if planted by a 
monk. The infirmary soon became a hospice for all the monks, 
whether sound or sick, and the hospice grew into a convent. The 
latter became a chapel, and the chapel transformed itself into a 
church. A choir and a sacristy grew up together. A dormitory 
was added to the infirmary, and a refectory and kitchen were 
necessary adjuncts to the dormitory. The doors which at first 
were shut during the celebration of mass opened of their own 
accord. At first only some devout penitents entered, but soon the 
public followed. Low mass became high mass, and one by one 
all the functions of the priesthood were exercised. They preached : 
they heard confessions ; they celebrated the feasts of their order. 
A bell was hung in the steeple, merely to remind the monks of 
their religious observances, but it also called the people to wor- 
ship." 

The Recollet Monastery was built partially on the site of the 
present English Cathedral, but as few houses divided the Place 
d'Armes from the present market place, the Cathedral and the 
Jesuit Church stood in sight of one another ; and the monks, 
officiating in their detested conventicle, despite episcopal disap- 
proval, were drawing away the parishioners from the teachings 
of the secular clergy, and sowing political discord. The Bishoj:) 
could not silence the monks' tongues, but at least he succeeded in 
silencing the unlawful ringing of the monastery bell. Its clapper 
remained dumb until Bishop Saint Vallier bought their monastery 
of Xotre Dame Des Anges, and converted it into the General 
Hospital relieving them, as a condition of the transaction, from 
the restriction which Bishop Laval had imj)osed upon their 
ministrations in the I'p|)cr Town.* 

The monks, through the persistency with which they invaded 

*It should be mentioned to tlicir credit that they were free enough 
from bigotry to permit of tlie Episcopal service being performed in thei' 
chapels at Quebec and ATontreal, before the Protestant Episcopal church 
"Was able to provide church accommodation for their own body. 



444 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

tEe established parishes, and preached and administered the sacra- 
ments, instead of confining their ministrations to the four Indian 
nations to which they had been assigned, were naturally a source 
of intense irritation to the Bishop, who felt that, by their assump- 
tion of a character of peculiar sanctity, they disturbed that implicit 
confidence in the cure which it was so important that parishioners 
should repose in their appointed pastor. It has not therefore been 
without reason that the secular clergy have always looked with 
jealousy on the monastic orders. It is right to add that, if the 
monks have so long reHeved Canada of their presence, the reason 
is to be sought, not only in the severity of the climate — unsuited to 
their pecuHar costume, the very cut of which is as sacred as the 
rule of their order — but also in the fact that the clergy, preserving 
the pure tradition of the seminary founded by Laval, have fulfilled 
their spiritual functions so thoroughly and so faithfully that there 
was no room left for interlopers. If the itinerant monks were 
temporarily welcome until the cure became a national institution 
dear to every French Canadian heart, it may have been, as Bishop 
Creighton truly, but half jocularly, pointed out, because ''naturally 
men preferred to confess to a wandering frair, whom they had 
never seen before, and hoped never to see again, rather than to 
their parish priest, whose rebuke and admonition might follow 
them at times when the spirit of contrition was not so strong 
within them." The position of the monks was unstable while 
Laval was Bishop, but Bishop Saint Vallier found them use- 
ful as allies in his controversy with the Seminary and the 
Seminary priests, and gave them a status in the city which had 
been refused them by his predecessor. 

Laval's observations during his many years' residence in the 
colony had convinced him that the Jesuit fathers, by reason of the 
rules of their order, were not fitted to fill the functions of parish 
priests ; and, therefore, while he was in France in 1663, he issued 
an order establishing the Seminary in Quebec for the education 
and maintenance of priests, whether they were occupied in 
teaching or in serving the parishes. He further ordained that the 
tithe of one-thirteenth of the produce of the farms should be pay- 
able to the Seminary, to which the parish priest was to remain 



OPPOSITION TO THE LEV^'ING OF CHURCH TITHES. 445 

attached as to a collegiate body, though removable at the will of 
the Bishop. The inhabitants of the parish of Quebec, which at 
that time covered the seignories of Lauzon and part of the Island 
of Orleans, were for some years to pay only one-twentieth. On 
October loth, 1663, the Supreme Council, which was constituted 
immediately after the Bishop's return, registered the tithe ordi- 
nance, and it was confirmed by Royal patent. 

But the poor, struggling habitants did not submit to the imposi- 
tion and collection of these dues without a murmur, rising 
almost into revolt, and Governor de Mezy sided with them. 
La Tour says that a section of the Council opposed the 
registration of the letters patent, and that de Mezy appealed 
to the King on behalf of the habitants, claiming that the 
imposition would ruin them and the country, and arrest fur- 
ther immigration. The exact scope of the imposition was also 
a matter of dispute. The wording of the ordinance, as drawn by 
the Bishop, was that the tithes were to be paid, not only on the 
produce of human labor, but on what the land produced by itself, 
tant de ce qui nait du travail des hommes que de ce que la terre 
produit d'elle mcme. When the opposition became violent and 
widespread, the act was interpreted as applying only to agricultural 
products, the fruit of the soil and the direct results of human 
industry, and not, therefore, to lumber, and still less to manufac- 
tured articles : but the wording of the ordinance is so vague and 
comprehensive that it may well have given rise to apprehension 
that the clergy would claim a large percentage of the total wealth 
of the whole country. In this matter, however, Laval displayed a 
forbearance and reasonableness remarkably at variance with his 
attitude on points of prerogative and on the liquor question. 
The noble side of his character is here shown in a strong 
light. To him it seemed that, however necessary it might be 
that the servants of the Church should be endowed with inde- 
pendent means of subsistence, yet he and his clergy could live for 
a time on charity without injury to their sacred character; on the 
other hand, as Bishop of New France, he felt that the position 
of his successors to all time would depend on his stubborn defence 
of the episcopal prerogative. As to the sale of brandy to the 



44^ QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

Indians, it involved, in his opinion, their very souls' salvation, 
and was, therefore, not a matter for compromise. 

There were, it is true, many other interests more important to 
the colony and more worthy of consideration, even by the head of 
the Church, than the prerogatives of the clergy. There were other 
methods of checking the use and the abuse of the liquor traffic than 
perpetually quarreling with the great state officials, because they 
were not prepared to use the severest form of coercion, which at 
best would have proved but a temporary remedy, and would cer- 
tainly have injured trade. Still it was not entirely on this account 
that the Bishop was unrelenting. Moneymaking and money- 
getting were abhorrent in his eyes, and the moneymakers 
were entitled to no mercy. Hence the injury to the trade 
of the company was not worthy of consideration. And, to 
be consistent, if love of pelf in others were wicked, love of pelf 
in his clergy was still more so; and therefore he was willing to 
concede a point in the matter of tithes, while remaining 
obstinate in opposing every infringement of his official pre- 
rogative and every practice which would endanger the salvation 
of the Indians. The brandy traffic primarily affected the interests 
of the trading company and the local traders, but the tithes came 
out of the pockets of the poor habitant, and for him the Bishop, 
though an aristocrat, perhaps because an aristocrat, had much sym- 
pathy. He consequently modified his first proposal and fixed the 
tithes for the whole colony, as well as Quebec at one-twentieth, 
first for six years, and then for the term of his life. And, as in 
1665 discontent was still rife, he consented that no tithes should be 
collected until the King's will could be known. The Royal decision 
was not expressed until 1667. Popular feeling rose high, 
especially in the neighborhood of Quebec, where the Bishop 
and his secular clergy were personally known. The ten- 
ants of the Seminary's own seigniory at Beaupre were so incensed 
that the cure, Mons. Morel, had to be recalled. The people were 
undoubtedly desperately poor. The surplus of produce over and 
above what was necessary to maintain life was small, and this sur- 
plus was the only commodity convertible into money or goods. 
That so much of it should go to the Church must have seemed 



SETTLEMENT OF THE TITHE QUESTION. 



447 



a hardship, the more so as the Jesuits were the largest property 
holders in New France, and the Bishop and his Seminary were 
absorbing a large part of what was left. The people of Canada 
were all, it is true, Catholics ; but they had come only recently 
from Old France, where other forms of revolt against extreme 
ecclesiasticism than Calvanism were rife. 

The last chapter of the story of the tithes is soon told. The 
Marquis de Tracy, at the suggestion of the Intendant, Talon, and 
with the approval of the Bishop, so far yielded to the discontent 
of the people as to reduce the tithes to one-twenty-sixth for twenty 
years. But the tithes were payable to the cures themselves in 
thrashed wheat, delivered free of charge, not to the Seminary ; and 
to avoid frauds the cure could have the harvest estimated a fort- 
night before the harvest time, a proviso which indicated clearly 
the friction still existing between the Church and its children 
upon this burning question of finance. The council soon cancelled 
the condition which permitted the cure to assess the value of the 
crop, and moreover exempted all new lands for five years from the 
imposition of any tithes. The ordinance of Alons. de Tracy also 
severed the dependence of the cure on the Seminary, and this 
severance was made absolute by the decree of the King in 1679, 
when the tithe of one-twenty-sixth was made perpetual. Xeverthe- 
less, though the clergy became thus more intimately allied with 
their flocks, friction still continued. If the tithes fell heavily on 
the habitajit, the reduction to one-twenty-sixth fell still more 
heavily on the cure. Frontenac in 1678 for once took the side of 
the Bishop in a conference held to devise ways and means for 
meeting the clerical budget. The best they could suggest was the 
proposition to pay each cure 500 francs a year, 200 to cover per- 
sonal expenses and 300 for board in the family of a parishioner. 
The scheme failed, inasmuch as board and lodging could not be 
secured at less than 400 francs. So in the following year the 
subject was renewed in the Sovereign Council, and a circular 
issued calling on all interested in the subject to submit their views 
before the spring of 1680. Mons. Pierre Franchcville presented a 
memorial from the clergy at the time specified, pointing out the 
anomalies of their position, and |)rn\ing that a mcthorl of relief 



448 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



should be devised, and funds provided for paying them a suf- 
ficiency of income v^hen the tithes failed.* 

A complicated system of determining the tithes was devised by 
the Council; and the King, under the advice of the Marquis de 
Seignelay, son of the great Colbert and his successor in office, 
agreed to supplement the revenue of the clergy, derived from the 
tithes, by payment to the Seminary of 8,000 francs annually, of 
v^hich 2,000 francs was for the support of aged and infirm priests, 
and 1,200 for a church construction fund. The Seminary became 
the depository and dispenser of the fund, and remained so until 
Mons. de Saint Vallier insisted on assuming that function himself. 

The clergyf made one more effort to secure the original toll of 
one-twelfth of the total produce of the soil, including flax, 
tobacco, fruits, vegetables, hay and grain, but their petition was 
refused ; and by the ordinance of the 12th of July, 1707, the tithes 
were fixed at one-twenty-sixth of cereals alone, an arrangement 



* Governor de Denonville came to the conclusion, with Abbe de Cheva- 
lieres, that fifty-one parishes were required, and that the cures could not 
live on less than 400 francs, though he once thought 300 sufficient. Fifty- 
one multiplied by 400 equalled 20,400 francs, and as the tithes yielded only 
6,196 francs, the King asks Mons. de Champigny, the Intendant, how he 
expects the balance to be provided. 

fin 1705, two priests, M.M. Boulard and Dufournel, claimed that a copy 
of the ordinance of the 23rd of August, 1667, which they produced, gave 
the Church tithes, not only on grain, but on all cultivated products of the 
soil. They were called on to plead their cause before the Council, but 
the Sieur d'Auteuil, the Procureur General, carried his point against them, 
and the Court decided that the ordinance by wfiich tithes were to be 
paid only on grain was of later date, namely, dated Septetmber 4th, of the 
same year, though not even a copy of this later ordinance could be pro- 
duced. None has since been found, but Judge Beaudry discovered among 
the judicial archives of Montreal the original ordinance of Aug. 23rd of 
which the two cures had a copy. The ordinance of Sept 4th could not 
have been signed by Tracy, as claimed, for, according to the Journal of 
the Jesuits, he had sailed for France on Aug. 28th. Nevertheless, though 
the decree may not have been signed by the Viceroy on Sept.. 4th, it is 
inconceivable that the clergy would have submitted at that date to such 
a curtailment of their dues had such an ordinance not been passed. The 
subject is discussed in detail by Thomas Chapais in his "Life of Talon," 



A FIRMLY-ESTABLISHED ECCLESIASTICAL SYSTEM. 



449 



that has subsisted from that day to this ; for, as under the Quebec 
Act, the French of the Province of Quebec retained their civil 
laws and their religion, the Church of to-day has the same 
power over its flock as it possessed before the Conquest. Its 
parish priests still collect their tithes of one-twenty-sixth by 
process of law, and the arret of July 12, 1707, is virtually in force 
at this hour. 

That the opposition of bygone days to the compulsory payment 
of tithes, when heresy was virtually illegal, should have disap- 
peared to-day, when exemption can be secured by any one claim- 
ing it on the ground of change of faith, affords a striking proof 
of the greater hold religion possesses when voluntarily adopted 
than when forcibly imposed. 



CHAPTER XXV. 



The Brandy War; Laval and Frontenac in Conflict* 

As already stated, the brandy question, while it did not touch 
the interests of the farmer so sensibly as it did those of the 
trader, still affected not a few of the habitants in outlying settle- 
ments, who engaged in occasional mercantile transactions with 
the Indians. Brandy was found to be the cheapest article of 
exchange, and, when judiciously administered, a valuable 
aid to negotiation. The mercantile class, and the agent and 
members of the mercantile company, regarded freedom of sale of 
intoxicants to the Indians as the sole means of successful compe- 
tition with their Dutch and English rivals, who, despite certain 
mild prohibitions, used whiskey, which the French called rhom de 
hiere, because made from barley or other cereals, as the most 
attractive article of barter. Col. Dongan, Governor of New York 
under James II, in one of his letters to Governor de Denonville, 
bluntly expresses the views of the English colonists. "The 
British King," he says, "is as zealous to propagate the Faith 
as anyone." He had himself asked for a missionary to dissuade 
the savages from their drunken debaucheries, "though certainly 
our rum does as little harm as your brandy, and in the opinion 
of Christians is much more wholesome." He adds the remark 
that "to keep the Indians temperate and sober is a very good and 
Christian performance, but to prohibit them all strong liquors 
seems a little hard and very turkish."* 

On the other hand the Church regarded strong drink as the 
most demoralizing and destructive agent to the life and well-being 



*During the invasion of the Mohawk Country in 1692 by the French 
the chiefs of the Five Nations begged Governor Fletcher to prevent the sale 
of liquors to their braves "while the war is so hot." 



A CLERICAL VIEW OF THE BR.\NDY QUESTION. 



of the aborigines ever introduced by Europeans, and it fought 
against its sale or administration to the Indians under any plea, 
with all the weapons, spiritual and temporal, which its arsenal 
contained. The arguments used by the Church were, from a 
moral point of view, unanswerable, and have been concurred in 
by the governments both of Canada and of the United States, the 
laws of both countries providing heavy penalties for all venders of 
whisky to the red men. Nevertheless, the benevolent and humane 
efforts of the Church to stem the tide of drunkenness aroused 
bitter opposition on the part not only of the Governors but of the 
people of New France. Self-interest accounts for that opposition 
no doubt in part, yet there is good reason to believe that, had the 
officers of the Church confined themselves to argument and moral 
suasion, instead of proceeding, as they did, to violent denunciation, 
excommunications and political intrigues, they would have 
effected more good and excited less anger. 

An interesting document (supposed by the Abbe Faillon to 
be from the pen of the Abbe Belmont, author of the earliest history 
of Canada) has been published by the Literary and Historical 
Society of Quebec, being the history of brandy from the Church's 
point of view, and consequently revealing not a few divine secrets 
confided by Providence to the clergy alone. From it we gather 
that it was because La Chine was one of the most intemperate of 
the Indian villages, that its inhabitants were handed over to the 
vengeance of the Iroquois, who were used by God as the ministers 
of His justice. The same place we are told was further 
punished by the destruction of its crops, for having entertained 
eighty canoe loads of visiting Indians at a famous drinking bout ; 
"that evening," so the narrative reads, "the wheat crop was the 
finest in the world ; the morning after the horrible revel it was 
rusted and withered as by a fog." 

The connection between the debauch and the blight is not 
apparent, nor were signs and wonders needed to prove that the 
traffic was nefarious. The crimes committed l)y tlic infuriated 
savages ; the rapid disappearance of whole tribes unrlcr the ravages 
of wliiskey and debauchery ; the flemoralizing effect on the white 
traders of being allowed, first to intoxicate and then to swindle 



452 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



their dusky victims, made up a catalogue of evils, resulting from 
the brandy traffic black enough and long enough to appall the most 
callous, without the addition of any heaven-sent calamities. 

Churchmen, however, even in the 17th century did not alto- 
gether overlook utilitarian arguments. The j)randy question hav- 
ing been laid in the first place before the theologians of the Univer- 
sity of Toulouse, the traffic was pronounced to be not illicit in 
itself, but legitimate or illegitimate, according as it might be 
carried on. And the reasons given by the traders in favor of 
the selling of spirits to the Indians were considered by the theo- 
logical faculty as conclusive. They were : First, that the sale of 
brandy attracted the Indians to the French, and therefore brought 
them under the humanizing and refining influences of that nation. 
Secondly, that, when temperately used, brandy enabled them to 
resist the great cold to which they were exposed. Thirdly, that it 
withdrew them from intercourse with the Dutch and the English, 
and so protected them from heresy. The Sorbonne, on the other 
hand, twice pronounced on the subject, declaring it a mortal sin 
to encourage drunkenness among the Indians, or to sell liquor 
wholesale to the taverns where it was retailed to the Indians. In 
presence of these contradictory rulings from equally high authori- 
ties Frontenac felt justified in authorizing the traffic, and the 
Bishop, no less justified in anathematizing all who engaged in it. 
In the words of the chronicler : "The quarrel reached such a pass 
as to divide the Church and the world, the temporal and the 
spiritual powers, the rulers of the Church and the rulers of the 
State. The controversy was waged with an animosity which 
deeply grieved all moderate men, the more so as each side was able 
to array a host of maxims, reasons and precedents in support of 
its case." 

The Hurons and the few Algonquins in and near Quebec being 
under strict ecclesiastical control, were more or less safeguarded 
from the evil, which was seen at its worst at the annual fur fairs 
at Montreal, when hundreds of Indians came down from the 
upper lakes with the coureurs de hois and white traders, all of 
whom, as well as the local traders, were, from good fellowship 
as well as self-interest quite ready to indulge in drinking them- 



VIEWS OF THE CIVIL AUTHORITIES. 



453 



selves, and to encourage the habit among the Indians. From 
Montreal the revelry spread to La Chine, to the Bourg of St. 
Louis, and to the Indian settlements of the neighborhood, where 
treating on a large scale was practiced. But though Quebec saw 
least of, and profited most from, the actual drinking, it was acutely 
perturbed^being the headquarters of the court and religious 
community — by the endless controversy which had divided public 
opinion ever since the restoration of French rule. Champlain had 
taken the side of the traders. The Bishop and d'Argenson fought 
over the question, which raged fiercely well into the next century. 
Till the Company of the lOO Associates was dissolved in 1663 the 
Governor's chief function was to protect its interests, which made 
it difficult for him to be a disinterested or an independent ruler ; 
but Courcelle, Frontenac, and their successors were at liberty 
to consult the commercial interests of the colony at large, and 
their judgment may therefore fairly be regarded as impartial. 

D'Argenson complained that the Vicar Apostolic hurled his 
excommunications against people who were acting in conformity 
with regulations approved by the civil authorities. D'Avaugour 
at first co-operated with Laval in his efforts to suppress the liquor 
traffic among the Indians, but afterwards, exasperated by the 
interference of the Jesuits and the Bishop in matters of State, 
took advantage, as we have seen, of the inconsistency of the 
Jesuits, in pleading for a woman guilty of an infraction of the 
liquor law, to cancel his previous prohibition. He also quarreled 
with Maisonneuve, denying his right as Governor of Montreal 
to make prohibitive regulations in \^illemaric opposed to his own 
general ordinance as Governor of the whole of New France. 
During the unhappy rule of his successor, De Mezy, the same 
confusion prevailed, the authority of the Governor General being 
arrayed against that of the priests of St. Sulpicc, who, as scti^uenrs 
of Montreal, were its actual rulers, the local Governor at the 
time we speak of, and till some years later, being their nominee. 

Laval left his diocese in 1662 to plead his cause and secure 
the dismissal of the obnoxious d'Avaugour. During his absence 
the excommunications continued to be promulgated, to the dis- 
organization of all good government, against men who were in 



454 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

no sense violating the law. That the Church was right in oppos- 
ing the abuses connected with the liquor trade few could deny; 
that its methods were wise and patriotic only partisans will con- 
tend; but matters were rapidly approaching the point where the 
conflicting views of statesmen and priests could not fail to 
cause serious social disturbance. The growth of commerce 
consequent upon the cancellation of the exclusive rights of the 
old Company of One Hundred Associates, the influence of the 
correspondence of the military and civil officers on the French 
court, and the increasing public irritation against the intolerant 
attitude of the Church, all had their effect on Talon, who, in 1668, 
just before retiring from office for the first time, suspended the 
existing provisions against the sale of liquor to the Indians. The 
Council confirmed the Intendant's action, giving as a reason that 
it was the King's desire that the French and the savages should 
live in closer intercourse, and that brandy was the best pledge of 
friendship. No prohibitory edicts could be enforced. It must be 
borne in mind that the coureurs de hois practically refused to obey 
either priest or King, and that there was no police and no court in 
the depth of the forest either to collect evidence against, or to con- 
vict, those independent rovers. Moreover, the prohibitive ordi- 
nances merely encouraged smuggling and iUicit trade, crimes both 
of which could be practiced almost with impunity in a wilder- 
ness like Canada, with thousands of miles of open frontier and 
keen Yankee traders on the other side of an ambiguous dividing 
line. The same conditions rendered inoperative all laws for- 
bidding brandy to be taken into the woods, after it had been 
made illegal to sell it to the Indians in the settlements. Laval, as 
member of the Council, had been present at the meeting in which it 
was ridiculously pretended that brandy was to bind the colony 
to the Indians in an alliance of perpetual amity and good will; 
but he refused to sign the edict, and continued to excommunicate 
and punish with all the pains and penalties of the Church those 
who disobeyed his orders. 

Talon left finally for France in November, 1672, two months 
after the arrival of Frontenac ; and until Duchesneau came to the 
country, nearly three years later, on the 1 6th of September, 



A MASTERFUL GOVERNOR. 



455 



1675, Frontenac filled the functions of Governor and commander- 
in-chief of the army, as well as those of Intendant. During these 
three years, therefore, he governed with fewer trammels than 
any of his predecessors or successors. The absence of the Bishop 
from the country removed the only check which might have been 
placed upon his arbitrary temper. He was thus for a time 
left free in the fullest sense, and he ruled with a high hand ; im- 
prisoning priests in spite of the capitularies and canon law ; seizing 
and incarcerating the local Governor of Montreal ; packing the 
sovereign council with his own appointees ; refusing to allow the 
Bishop's Vicar General to occupy his seat in the Council ; planning 
a campaign and collecting men and supplies on the most approved 
system of commandeering; caring as little for the Bishop's an- 
athema as for public approval or disapproval ; doing what he 
thought best for the general good and safety of the colony, with- 
out considering too carefully whether his action would be sanc- 
tioned by the Court and minister. What mattered that? He 
was doing what he deemed right, and the disapproval of his 
acts could only be received from France eight months afterwards. 
We may be thankful we are not victims of his arbitrary will ; but 
looking back, the fierce and undaunted visage of the veteran war- 
rior, and the austere form of his adversary, the Bishop, stand 
out as the most imposing and impressive figures among that 
group of seventeenth century heroes, who stood on the rock of 
Quebec, framed by the impenetrable forests, and washed by the 
mysterious and majestic river, whose source the black-robed 
priests were the first of their race to explore. 

We may blame the governor for assuming powers with which 
he was not legally invested, and we may blame the Bishop for 
wielding unmercifully the terrible weapons the Church put into 
his hands : but who dare charge either with false or sordid 
motives? The insinuations made against Frontenac that he 
colluded with the coureurs dc hois: tliat he shared in the profits of 
illicit traders ; that he founded the fort of Frontenac simply as a 
trading post in the interest of himself and his partner. La Salle; 
that his violent measures against Pcrrot. the Governor of Mont- 
real, grew out of jealousy of a commercial rival, who occupied a 



456 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



commanding commercial position; that he approved of the sale 
of liquor to the Indians, not so much because it assisted trade 
at large, as because it advanced his own private interests; that 
he introduced the system of permits merely to prevent the priests 
investigating his nefarious trading operations; that his bitter 
dislike to the Church and all its clergy, except the Recollet friars, 
originated in selfish motives — all these aspersions find their only 
justification in the innuendos of that inveterate gossip, Saint 
Simon, and the charges of his bitter enemy and underhanded fel- 
low-official Duchesneau. Saint Simon's accusation rests on the 
unproved allegation that Frontenac, who had left France poor, 
returned rich. Had that been true, and had he used his official 
position during the first administration to fill his purse, is it likely 
that, during his second term of rule, he would have continued to 
live in the tumble-down old Chateau, hardly protected from the 
weather, while the few thousand francs which he pleaded for 
from France were being tardily contributed for its reconstruction? 

Considering that the brandy war raged during the whole of his 
administration, the wonder is that so few charges were made 
against him. The controversy assumed its acutest phase when the 
Bishop emphasized his protest against the traffic by making it 
a cas reserve, thus removing it from the sphere of all civil 
or legislative action and sent his most diplomatic priest. Father 
Dudouyt, to Paris, to plead his cause before the Court. 

The Intendant Duchesneau recommended Dudouyt to Colbert ; 
Frontenac, of course, did what he could in the opposite direction. 
On April 27th, 1677, Bishop Laval's delegate was granted an 
audience by the minister, who insisted that the clergy of Canada 
must confine themselves to their proper ecclesiastical functions, 
and not interfere with matters of state policy. The priest, of 
course, argued that a practice detrimental to man's body and 
ruinous to his soul, fell within their province; that it had been 
pronounced so by the highest ecclesiastical authorities ; that it 
was held to be so by God's agent, the Bishop, who was respon- 
sible for the salvation of his flock; and that no prohibition or 
persecution could make him or his clergy swerve from their duty. 
They parted as they had met — the minister firm in his determina- 



THE QUESTION DEBATED IX FRANCE. 



457 



tion to support his subordinate, the Governor, the priest unmoved 
by the displeasure of the great man. 

But though Frontenac in the wilds of Canada was willing to 
risk the displeasure and the censure of the Church, the minister, 
in his very different sphere of action, did not consider it politic to 
do so. That the Church was in earnest in the matter was 
evidenced by the fact that Colbert's confessor refused him absolu- 
tion because he had decided with the Governor against the Bishop. 
In another interview with the priest the minister pointed out that, 
by making the sale of brandy to the Indians a cas reserve, and 
hurling excommunications right and left, for a practice accepted 
as legitimate in white communities, the Bishop was bringing the 
Church into discredit. I\Ions. Dudouyt saw that he could not 
carry his point and secure prohibition, especially as Talon was 
in France, and had the full confidence of the minister. Talon, in 
1668, argued, as d'Argenson had done, when he persuaded the 
Council to pass his obnoxious edict, that it was unjust to make 
unequal laws. Mons. Dudouyt therefore shifted his ground, and 
pleaded for some measure which would minimize the evil, if not 
extirpate it. At the same time he wrote to the Bishop asking him 
to send over by the first ship a well-authenticated statement of 
facts regarding the liquor question, and begging him most earn- 
estly in the meantime not to irritate Colbert by further excommuni- 
cations. The Bishop followed the advice of his representative, and 
sent a statement, which, while it did not entirely convince the 
King, impressed him so deeply, that he instructed Frontenac in 
conjunction with the Council, to call together twenty of the oldest 
and most influential inhabitants, and ascertain their views on 
the vexed question. The committee met in October, 1678, and 
drafted a report on the 26th of that month, which was emphat- 
ically in favor of free trade in spirituous liquors. The members 
of the committee, though not wholly disinterested — seeing that, 
apart from the priests, nearly every prominent man in the country 
had some direct or indirect concern in the liquor trade — were all 
notable and honorable men, and their report, which was almost 
unanimous, if it did not fully prove the correctness of their deci- 
sion, at least relieved Talon. Frontenac and others, who had taken 



45S QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

up a position opposed to the Jesuits and the Bishop, from the odium 
of having acted from purely private aand interested motives.* The 
v^^eight of pubHc opinion was decidedly upon their side. The 
Council transmitted, by the hands of Mons. De Puort and Mons. 
De Peyras, the report with all the documents asked for by the 
King. The representatives who took the report to France were 
known to be hostile to the Bishop's views and pretensions and 
therefore, feeble and suffering though he was, the prelate took 
ship at once to plead in person the cause of his Indian flock, and 
expose what he persisted were the sordid motives of his opponents. 

On his arrival in France he was persuaded by Mons. Dudouyt 
to abate his extreme demands, and in his interview with the King 
he merely asked that an edict should be issued prohibiting the 
carrying of liquors by white hunters or traders into the woods, as 
an article of barter with the Indians, and the selling of brandy to 
the Indians in their villages. The King was so impressed with 
the Bishop's description of the injury done both to red men and 
to white men by the traffic in brandy that he submitted the ques- 
tion to his confessor, Pere La Chaise, and the Archbishop of Paris, 
w^ho joined in recommending him to issue an edict in conformity 
with the Bishop's moderated proposal. This was done, and the 
Bishop professed himself satisfied. 

He cannot be considered to have won a victory, and in point 
of fact the slight restrictions imposed on the liquor traffic were of 
little avail in arresting the evil. Shortly afterward, in 1682, both 
Frontenac and the Intendant Duchesneau were recalled ; and the 



*La Salle, in his evidence on the brandy question, as a member of the 
special council called to report upon the subject, says that the sale of 
beaver skins reaches 60,000 to 80,000, and that the savages who buy brandy 
number about 20,000, and that there is usually given for a skin one chopine 
of brandy ; and if, therefore, every Indian drinks only his chopine of brandy 
per year, he is not much the worse, and the country secures one-quarter or 
one-third of all the beaver skins bought. The opinion of each of the dele- 
gates is given separately. All are in favor of the sale of brandy, but 
Joliet opposes its sale in the woods, and would restrict the sale to the 
settlements. Margry I, page 145. Proces verbal de V Assemble e tenue au 
chateau de Saint-Louis de Quebec les 10 octobre, 1678, et jours suivanfs, 
au sujet des boissons enyvrantes que I'on traite aux Sauvages. 




Plan of (Juel)ec made by Kranriueliii in irxS.'i, to illustrate 
a sclu-ine of harlior iin|>r(.vfineiils. 



LAVAL RESIGNS HIS SEE. 



459 



brandy question was almost forgotten in the calamities which 
before long overtook the colony, and which popular opinion attrib- 
uted so decidedly to the absence of their former vigorous Gov- 
ernor, that no other course seemed possible but to send him back 
to Canada in 1689. 

Meanwhile the advance of age and his increasing infirmities 
had compelled Bishop Laval to lay down the burden of ecclesias- 
tical and civil work, which he had by voluntary assumption made 
very heavy. It was now his turn to smart under a ruling which 
he did not venture to disobey, and at the author of which it would 
have been rash to attempt to hurl an excommunication. In 1687, 
after his retirement from the active exercise of his episcopal 
functions, and while waiting in Paris for the acceptance of 
his resignation by the King and the papal bull appointing his 
successor, serious divergence of opinion occurred between himself 
and the Bishop-elect, Saint Vallier, respecting the management of 
the Quebec seminary. It was drifting into bankruptcy, and the 
Bishop, aged and ill though he was, decided to return to Canada 
to adjust the affairs of this institution founded by himself and so 
very dear to his heart. He would then be willing to die in his 
adopted country, and be buried in the chapel of his own erection, 
where masses would perpetually be said for the repose of his soul 
by a succession of priests, for whose education, comfort and sup- 
port provision had been made by his pious forethought, and whc^ 
would naturally hold his memory in deep regard. To his dismay, 
he was forbidden by the King, through the Marquis de Seignelay, 
to return, on the plea that his presence in Canada would cause 
dissension. The old man wrote a dignified, though pleading, letter 
to the minister, but obeyed. Twenty-eight years of experience 
of active life and of the exigencies of statecraft may have taught 
him moderation, and raised a doubt in his mind as to the wisdom 
and righteousness on the part of fallible man of applying any 
principles so severely and uncompromisingly as he himself had 
been in the habit of doing. 

The prohibition was removed as soon as his successor was 
consecrated, and on June 3rd, 1688, he landed for tlic last time at 
Quebec, to the infinite joy of the whole population ; for, though 



460 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



they may have opposed his interference in purely civil affairs, and 
deprecated the friction which it created, all recognized the sin- 
cerity of his devotion, not only to the infant church, but to the 
colony, and were especially hearty in their approval of his founda- 
tion of a seminary capable of providing an education for a secular 
clergy, drawn from the ranks of the people themselves. 

After the Bishop and the Count had both gone to their 
rest there was still friction between Church and State, but the 
quarrels were reduced to bickerings. The never-settled question 
of precedence continued to give trouble. Whether Bishop Saint 
Valher would admit the Governor, Vaudreuil, to the sanctuary, or 
permit him to dip his finger into the holy water, instead of being 
sprinkled like the common folk, or whether the Carignan-Saliere 
Regiment was in its proper position in the Recollet Church in 
Montreal — these and similar subjects of dispute, however they may 
have agitated the minds of those immediately concerned, had little 
interest for the pubHc. The country was growing, and matters of 
more importance were claiming attention. A noisy controversy 
raged as to the proper and rightful position of the captains of 
militia in the church processions, till a royal decree settled the 
order in which the various dignitaries were to be marshalled and 
to walk. Utterly trifling as these questions were, they had to be 
settled by the King, for under the rigid system of centralization, 
which Colbert had inaugurated, all these ignoble details were 
reported to, and passed upon by, the overworked monarch and his 
minister in the cabinet. Louis XIV. would have needed to be, as 
he actually regarded himself, an incarnation of deity, to be able 
to examine and decide such an infinitude of questions as were 
presented to him for settlement by his officials at home and abroad. 
Well might Michelet say, "He who grasps at too much can see 
nothing." Matters of importance are not recognized as such 
when the mind is distracted by trifles. If the same mind which 
shapes and directs the policy of the State has also to pass judg- 
ment upon the shortcomings of a nun or the promotion of a can- 
noneer, there is great danger that the larger interests will at times 
be sacrificed to the smaller. After the century closed the people of 
the colony were endowed with no greater control over their own 



CLOSING OF THE HEROIC AGE. 



461 



affairs than they had enjoyed before, and, if we except the Intend- 
ant Hocquart, no man of the stamp of Frontenac and Laval was 
sent to rule over them. With the disappearance of these two 
majestic figures from the drama of Canadian history, the interest 
of the plot languishes, and the story drags on towards a miserable 
ending. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



Quebec as the Seat of Clerical and Lay Education. 

Quebec may claim the credit of occupying a prominent place 
as one of the first seats of learning on the Continent. In the 
City of Mexico was built the first University, created by Royal 
Charter in 155 1, but it was planned and erected on so sumptuous 
a scale that the century was closing before it was opened. 

Harvard dates its birth from 1640, when the school developed 
into the College, by the aid of the Rev. John Harvard's gift of 
£1,700 and his library of 260 volumes, the object of which was 
"to advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity," the testator 
''dreading to have an illiterate ministry to the Churches, when its 
present ministers shall lie in the dust." 

It was twenty-seven years later before the older colony of 
Virginia, through the perseverance of the Rev. Dr. Blair, came 
to possess the William and Mary College ; and sixty-one years 
after the foundation of Harvard, Yale was opened with the 
avowed purpose of making it a training school for ministers. 

The first schoolmaster in Canada was the Recollet Brother 
Pacifique, who taught some little savages at Three Rivers as 
early as 1616; the second was Father Le Caron, of the same 
order, who two years afterward opened a school in Tadousac. 
The monks of Saint Francis, had their means been sufficient, might 
have established the Seminary at Quebec, which their general 
Syndic, M. Charles de Boiies, recognized as an essential adjunct to 
missionary work ; but, once the Jesuits entered the field, higher 
education was felt to be rightfully within their province. When 
the Jesuits returned to Canada without the Recollets, after the 
Restoration, Father Le Jeune promptly opened school with two 
scholars, and in 1635 the Society built a schoolhouse, in which 
they tried the co-education of white and red boys with very 



CENSUS OF 1 68 1. 



463 



indifferent success. At first the teaching was of an elementary 
character, but in twenty years the school had developed into 
a college, with a teaching staff which included professors of 
grammar, rhetoric, philosophy and the humanities. The Jesuit 
college, as a college, was virtually extinguished by the conquest 
of Canada in 1759, from which date the Lesser Seminary, organ- 
ized by Bishop Laval, whose pupils had previously received in- 
struction in the Jesuit College, became a teaching institution and 
preserved the continuity of college education. Education, in fact, 
occupied the energies of a large proportion of the inhabitants 
of the little town, nor were women overlooked. 

The Census of 1681, after enumerating the Establishment of 
the Governor as twenty-one persons, that of the Intendant at ten 
and the military force at twenty-one, gives in detail the staff of 
the Seminary, the Jesuit College, the Recollet Monastery and the 
nunneries : 

In the Seminary were 

Monseigneur the Bishop, M. de Bernieres, the 



Superior, 23 Priests 25 

Boarders 20 

Male servants 18 

Wives and daughters of the servants 4 

4 cows, 2 horses, i ass, at the farm of 60 arpents. 
The Household of the Jesuits consisted of 

Priests 8 

Brothers 7 

*Frcres donncs, or lay servants under vows 4 



* Freres Donncs were laymen who pledfjed themseh-es to serve for 
life without other remuneration than their maintenance, in whatever class 
of labor might be imposed on them. The members of this lay order, as first 
organized to assist the missionaries, took a vow of service and wore a 
religious habit ; and on the other hand the Society undertook to maintain 
them till death, without any reservation. The Jesuit authorities in Rome 
refused to sanction the formation of what was substantially a sub-order; 
but when Father Lalemant proposed to abolish the habit, and to relieve the 
Society from the obligation of perpetual maintenance, by claiming the right 
to discharge an unworthy servant, the General Vitelleschi permitted the 
institution of this class of lay helpers, who were most useful in the western 
mission stations. 



464 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUARY. 



Servants not under vows 10 

The number of pupils is not given. 
In the Recollet Monastery were 

Monks 7 

Freres donnes 3 

Wife of Frere Donne Guibault. 



4 oxen, 4 cows, i horse on the farm of 30 acres. 
The Convent of the HospitaHeres (The Hotel Dieu Hospital) 
had on its staff of nurses : 

Mothers 19 

Sisters 9 

As boarders were Madame d'Aillebout, the widow of the ex-gov- 
ernor, and her servant Edme Chastel. The good lady had twice 
entered the Ursuline Convent — once during her husband's Hfe, 
with his consent, and again after his death; but her resolution 
was not equal to her piety, and the seclusion of the nunnery 
taxed beyond power of endurance her active temperament, which 



found a more congenial sphere of duty in the Hospital. 
In the service of the Hospital were : 

Male servants 23 

Female , i 

and the live stock on their farm of 150 arpents, consisted of 30 

horned cattle, 40 calves and 40 sheep. 
The Ursuline Nunnery harbored : 

Mothers 22 

Sisters 7 

French boarders 17 

Indian boarders 10 



On the farm of 200 acres were 4 male servants, 40 head of 
cattle, 3 horses and 13 sheep. 

Thus, to minister to the spiritual wants and to the educa- 
tion of its male population, there were in Quebec 47 ordained 
priests and friars; 29 Ursuline nuns taught the girls, and there 
were 39 mothers and sisters in the Hospital. In the five religious 
houses there were 104 priests and nuns under solemn vows, and 
they employed in the service of their households and farms some 
67 men and women. Of the population, therefore, of 1345 over 



THE URSULINE CONVENT. 465 

12 per cent was engaged directly or indirectly in religious, edu- 
cational or hospital service. 

The Ursuline nuns then as now taught day scholars as well 
as boarders, and their school at that date was the only agency for 
imparting female education. Though, as we have seen, they had 
on their roll ten little savages, the hope with which Madame 
de la Peltrie and her friend Mere Marie de ITncarnation had 
founded the nunnery, that it would be a training school for 
Indian girls, whom they wished to fit for becoming the wives 
of French bachelors, was fading year by year. Experience showed 
that French husbands were more prone to follow their squaws 
into the forest than the squaws were to settle down into French 
housewives. Nevertheless Frontenac himself still cherished the 
belief that he could win the western tribes over to the French side 
by nobler motives than the mere desire of gain, and in his cortege 
from Fort Frontenac there were generally some Indian girls 
whom he was bringing to Quebec to be educated and civilized 
by the Ursulines. 

The standard of female education was not high in those 
days. Mere Marie de ITncarnation said in 1661 : "Some pupils 
remain six or seven years, others in the short space of twelve 
months must be taught their prayers, reading, writing, and arith- 
metic, and the Church's doctrines and morals, in short, all that 
is most essential in the education of females." But if the girls 
were not crammed with learning, they were taught the exquisite 
graces of courtesy and reverence for holy things, which, grafted 
on their native vivacity, excited the admiration and respect of 
such gallants as La Hontan and such grave' savants as Kalm ; 
and which became so deeply implanted in their natures that it is 
inherited by their sisters to-day. 

It is sad to record that the good ladies had to bear more than 
their share of calamities. A second fire broke out while the 
nuns and their pupils were at mass on Sunday morning, Oct. 20, 
1686. It destroyed the nunnery with its valuable records, and the 
chapel, sparing only ^^adamc de la Peltrie's house. Misfortune, 
however, only stimulated their ardor and the interest of others 
in their work ; for, on the reopening of the convent after the fire, 



466 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



just half a century after the members of the order first landed in 
Canada, the community numbered 34 members, devoted exclusively 
to education in Quebec. Yet they were prepared for other tasks 
when called upon, for, as we read, the convent consented to spare 
some of their members to undertake the duty of nurses, in 
the nunnery established in 1697 in Three Rivers, where the 
population was too small to support both a school and a hospital. 
The Court at Versailles did not look with favor on this multipli- 
cation of conventual establishments, and the King, while not refus- 
ing permission to open the Convent at Three Rivers, declined to 
confer on it Letters Patent. In the same dispatch he commented 
with disapproval on Bishop Saint Vallier's plan of putting the 
General Hospital in charge of a separate community of the Hos- 
pitalieres, and insisted that it should be subject to the Inspector 
of Hospitals. 

While in Paris in 1663, or eight years after the opening of 
the Jesuit College in Quebec, and twenty-three years after Presi- 
dent Dunster was inducted as principal of Harvard, Bishop Laval, 
took the step of creating by Letters Episcopal the Seminary of 
Quebec for the theological education o'f the clergy of Canada. 
The King con'firmed this act, by letters patent, of date April 30, 
1663, and the Bishop landed in Quebec in September of the same 
year, accompanied or preceded by M. M. de Maizeret, Pommier, 
Dudouyt, de Bernieres, Lechevalier and Forest, who had been 
engaged to perform clerical functions and to conduct his contem- 
plated seminary. 

The intention of the founder was that the Seminary should be 
an establishment in which young clerics, "who might be judged fit 
for the service of God, should be educated and trained. And to 
that end they should be instructed in the manner of administering 
the sacraments and the methods of catechising and preaching 
apostolically ; also should be taught moral theology, the cere- 
monies of the Church, the plain Gregorian Chant, and whatever 
other studies are necessary to fit them for fulfilling well the 
duties of the priesthood." 

The Jesuit College was already giving the community advanced 
training in secular learning, and its course of preliminary studies 



THE QUEBEC SEMINARY. 



467 



was adapted to those proposing to enter the Church and undertake 
pastoral work. Bishop Laval, when he founded the Greater Semi- 
nary, confined the instruction given by its professors to purely 
theological and ritual subjects, entrusting the instruction of his 
future clergy in secular subjects to the able hands of the Jesuits. 
Even after the Lesser Seminary was established, it was first used 
more as a boarding house than as a complete educational establish- 
ment. The Church draws a distinction between education and 
instruction. As an educator it exercises, in its educational estab- 
lishments, constant supervision over its youth; it studies the 
idiosyncrasies of each of its younger members, endeavoring to 
repress all evil, and to foster and develop all virtuous, tendencies. 
In its seminaries, and even in the Universities under its control, 
a much stricter watch is kept over the pupils, and much less 
latitude of action and study is allowed to them, than in Protestant 
schools and colleges. The Lesser Seminary of Quebec, which 
Bishop Laval opened in 1668, was in this sense, up to the date 
of the Conquest, more an educational than a teaching institution, 
confining itself to the religious and elementary training of its 
pupils, the regulation of their morals, and the direction of their 
natural tendencies. To the Jesuits, in their better equipped col- 
lege, was entrusted instruction in secular subjects and the intel- 
lectual development of the seminarists. The Lesser Seminary 
(still Le Petit Seminaire) became also a training school for the 
priesthood, though it originated in a difYerent manner. 

The first impulse towards its establishment came from France, 
when Colbert communicated to the Bishop the King's earnest 
desire that the Christian Indians should be Frenchified, and his 
opinion that this could best be done by teaching Indian boys the 
French language and French manners. The most Christian King 
was liberal with his theories and his advice, but stingy when 
asked to pay for carrying them into practice. The Jesuits had 
essayed in vain to civilize and denationalize the Indians more than 
thirty years before, and they wisely declined to attempt the cx})cr- 
iment again. Whether Bishoj) Laval believed or not in the possi- 
bility of success, the Kinc;- had commanded, and like a loyal old 
noMe he obeyed, and opened the Petit Seminaire on Oct. 9th, ir)r><S. 



468 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



with 8 French and 6 Huron pupils. The number of the former 
grew; that of the latter declined, till, in 1673, the last one was 
removed by his parents. 

Subsequently, and till the Conquest, as already mentioned, the 
pupils of the Lesser Seminary received their instruction in the 
Jesuit College on the other side of the Market Place. But the 
former institution was the source whence the clergy of Lower 
Canada were selected, and such it remains to this day. Boys enter 
it young. They grow up under the closest ecclesiastical super- 
vision. Their proclivities are closely studied, and if they exhibit 
the ability and disposition held to be desirable in a priest, they 
are from childhood consecrated to God, and enveloped in the 
atmosphere of the Church; they live, move and have their very 
being in the Seminary, which is to them the expression of the 
Church's fostering care. Though the priesthood has thus been 
drawn from its pupils, the Lesser Seminary of Quebec Has none 
the less been the largest general elementary school in the Province ; 
and from it, for a century and a half, all the professions have 
drawn into their special schools a succession of children thoroughly 
drilled in certain branches. 

With the exception of the Seminary maintained by the Sul- 
picians in Montreal, the Jesuit College was, till the Conquest, 
practically the only seat of learning in Canada equipped to give 
a general education and train priests for their branch of the 
Church's work. Ferland gives the number of students at the Jesuit 
College in 1668 as 120, of whom 60 were boarders. Lahontan, 
in 1684, describes the College as so small that it could accommo- 
date only 50 pupil-boarders at a time, and La Potherie tells us 
that 80 of the Jesuit pupils were lodged in the Seminary opposite. 
These were really youths who had been enrolled at the Bishop's 
Seminary, but who pursued their general studies at the College, 
where, according to Bishop Saint Vallier, they acquired as great 
aptitude and facility as the best educated youths in France. 

The available information as to the course of study and 
the manner of life within the college is scanty. The latter 
has probably little changed in similar institutions of the Order, 
even to-day; the former we know has been greatly modified. 



THE JESUIT COLLEGE, 



469 



Father Rochemonteix, in his Lcs Jcsuites et la Nouvelle France, 
has collected many data, which we have freely used. 

Before Kirke's conquest Rene Rohault de Gamache, a devotee 
and afterwards a novice and a priest of the order, gave 16,000 
fl. gold coin, and an annual rental of 3,000 livres to found and 
support a College in Quebec. Political complications, however, 
and the fall of Quebec prevented the realization of his wish. 

Father Lalemant writes to the General Jean Paul Oliva : 
"The thoughts of the founder can be expressed in few words — 
to aid and to give spiritual instruction to the Canadians." 

The instruction given was thus undoubtedly at first very ele- 
mentary and exclusively religious, but in time Latin came to be 
added, for, as early as 1641, Mere Marie de ITncarnation says 
that the nuns were learning to speak the native language, but that 
the children at the College were learning Latin. In 165 1 P. Ragu- 
eneau reports to the Superior that, besides a teacher of reading 
and writing, there were in the College a professor of grammar, 
another of mathematics, and 16 scholars. By the year 1655, in 
addition to the masters of reading and writing, there were pro- 
fessors of philosophy, grammar, and of rhetoric and the hu- 
manities. 

Elementary mathematics had always formed a subject of study, 
but M. Talon, the Intendant, regarding Canada as a nursery for 
the Marine of France, induced the Jesuits to open a class for 
instruction in higher mathematics and hydrography. They had 
among their number a layman (Frere-donne le Sieur de Saint 
Martin) fit for the task, who became the precursor of a line 
of eminent teachers of mathematics, astronomy and navigation 
— all Jesuit Fathers — provided by the King with apparatus and 
supported from the Royal Treasury. The P. Silvey was the 
first who held the post officially, and P. Charles Misaigner the 
last. 

The curriculum was extended when Bishop Laval decided to 
educate a native clergy, and, lacking a professional staflf of his 
own, requested the Jesuits to teach Theology. The professors 
of Philosophy undertook this additional duty, for M. dc Bcau- 
harnais urges that, in consideration of the educational services of 



470 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

the Jesuits, the State pay the salary of 300 Uvres to an additional 
professor of Philosophy. The recommendation was not agreed 
to. The King was willing to pay a professor of Navigation, but 
not of Philosophy, for, even in those days, there were advocates 
of a practical as opposed to a too exclusively theoretical training. 
Theology having by that time been added to the secular course of 
studies, the Jesuits continued to educate youths for the priesthood 
long after the Grand Seminaire was equipped. Their college 
maintained, besides, an elementary department, for P. de Lauzon, 
in announcing to the General the death in 1734 of Father Gues- 
nier, the Professor of Philosophy and Theology, mentions that 
he also taught the catechism in the Junior school, which numbered 
over 100 children. 

To this College, as we have said, the Seminary sent its pupils, 
down to the date of the Conquest. M. de Champigny, writing 
to the minister in 1699, says : ''The Seminary boards 40 or 50 
children, some of whom pay fees, while others are supported 
gratuitously. They are taught all branches, from the elementary 
to Theology, in the schools of the Jesuits, whither they are sent 
twice a day." The Jesuit College, when in full operation toward 
the close of the 17th and in the beginning of the i8th century, 
was, in fact, a miniature of the larger colleges of the order in 
Europe. 

Rochemonteix says that, according to the correspondence of the 
Superior preserved in the general archives, the principal exercises 
apart from the lectures of the professors, were les Repetitions, 
la Sahhatine, et les Menstruates. The Repetitions were held daily. 
Every Saturday, and at the end of each month, the students en- 
gaged in a viva voce argument in the presence of a professor on 
a subject prescribed in advance. The advocate expounded the 
thesis and defended it ; his opponent maintained the contradictory 
position. The argument was in Latin, and the debaters were 
rigorously confined in their argument to the syllogistic method. 
These weekly and monthly disputations were private, but before 
the end of the scholastic year there was a great public debate. The 
first of these public debates is referred to in the Journal of the 
Jesuits of the 2nd of July, 1666. The Governor and all the func- 



EDLXATIOXAL ZEAL OF THE JESUITS. 



471 



tionaries of the State and Giurch were present. Louis Joliet, 
who afterward accompanied Pere ^Marquette to the discovery of 
the Mississippi, and Pierre de Francheville were among the dis- 
putants ; while Talon, the Intendant, joined in the debate tres bien, 
according to the Journal, speaking, like the others, in Latin. 

The great founder of the Order of Jesus, in the glow of his 
devout enthusiasm, reduced himself to poverty and supported 
himself during the long years of his literary education by charity. 
But he learned from experience, during this period of his life, 
that hunger and physical fatigue are enemies to study, and that 
the mind works best in a healthy, well-fed, properly-rested body. 
Consequently, though he decreed that the members of his order 
should take the most stringent vow of personal poverty, he 
encouraged the order, in its corporate capacity, to accumulate 
all the property it could for the support of its vast and widely 
extended missionary and educational enterprises. Its professors 
received no salaries, and its pupils paid no fees. Though in 
course of time it became the richest corporation in the world, 
the members of the order never degenerated, by reason of its 
wealth, into sloth and luxury, and its boarders — conzncti — were 
well fed and well housed. The Canadian Fathers gladly submitted 
to extreme hardship and danger in their missionary journeyings, 
living year after year in absolute isolation from all intellectual 
converse and social refinement ; and if, when they returned to 
Quebec, they found awaiting them the innocent luxury of a 
bed, their well-kept garden and grove, and a good dinner washed 
down with good wine, cooled, if it were not claret, with ice from 
their own ice house — Lahontan makes special mention of that 
useful addition to their establishment — he would be a captious 
critic who should begrudge them such well-earned comfort and 
refreshment. 

The ruling motive of Loyola was to arrest the growth of 
heresy by brincnng the Church into harmony with the progress 
of the age, and thus producing a counter-refoniiation within 
the Church itself. The agency by which he proposed to effect, and 
actually did eflFect, this momentous revolution was "higher educa- 
tion." He conceived the idea, while yet an illiterate devotee 



472 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

in the monastry of Montserrat, where he had hung up his 
Knight's sword, resolved to fight no longer under the orders of 
the King of Navarre, but under those of the Pope. Loyola was 
a man of the world, and saw that the venom of heresy injected 
into all classes by Luther, Calvin, and the Dutch, English and 
Scotch reformers, to say nothing of the hardly less pernicious 
spirit of scepticism and cynicism emanating from such scholars 
in the Church itself as Erasmus, far from being counteracted, 
would be inflamed by the noisy, vituperative abuse of the monks. 
He correctly judged that a body of priests must be reared up 
within the Church, who, while absolutely obedient to the See of 
Rome, could defend the Church's position by argument as well as 
by an example of pure and devout living. He foresaw too that the 
spread of liberal ideas in politics and religion could be checked 
among the youths of Europe, all aglow with the intellectual intox- 
ication of the revival of the 15th and i6th centuries, only by 
supplying them with as sound an education, based on as profound 
learning, as the best of the existing schools, colleges, and univer- 
sities could offer, but imparted by professors who had been drilled, 
throughout a long novitiate, both as teachers and as priests, to 
make intellectual education subservient to religion as taught by 
the Church of Rome. 

To fit himself for formulating such a system he went through 
thirteen years of hard study, which began only when he was 
thirty-three years of age. The constitution of the order was 
framed by himself with the assistance of the famous group of his 
early disciples, but it was formally promulgated only after his 
death. The duties and functions of the Society are set forth as 
ten in number, the fourth being education. But though occu- 
pying only the fourth position, education stood really first among 
the means which the Society used to influence the world ; for 
whether fighting heresy in Europe, or heathenism in Asia, or sav- 
agery in America, the one means which its members never 
neglected was the establishing of colleges and universities where 
sound learning was taught, and strict morality observed. Only 
two years had elapsed after the foundation of the order, which 
took place in 1540, before two colleges had been established. 



A WORLD-WIDE SYSTEM. 



473 



one in Portugal and the other at Goa, in Hindustan, the latter 
by that greatest of Oriental missionaries, Saint Francis Xavier. 
This college, which grew in time into a university, teaching 
all the branches of a liberal education in every language of the 
Orient, with a staff of 120 learned professors, all thoroughly 
trained and disciplined members of the order, became the parent 
of so many colleges in Japan, China and elsewhere in the East, 
that by the time the Jesuits entered on their missionary labors 
in North America, it seemed as though they were almost certain 
to win to Christianity the whole East, through the persuasive 
influence of profound learning, directed towards the exposition 
of Christian doctrine. In presenting the Christian religion for 
acceptance, the Jesuits, with judicious elasticity, adopted sucK of 
the practices and prejudices of the great masses of humanity, 
they were endeavoring to leaven, as they did not consider con- 
tradictory to the teachings of their divine Master. Unfortunately 
their concessions in certain directions were regarded as laxity, and 
they were compelled by Rome to adhere more rigidly to Western 
rules. Then commenced the decline of their Eastern missions. 

What wonder that, under the stimulus of such magnificent 
success, the Society promised itself a similar harvest in America. 
But the human material afforded by the North American Indian 
was widely different from that on which they had worked in the 
Orient, as the Fathers discovered even before they had commenced 
to build their college, and while still endeavoring to collect a 
school of Indian children at Notre Dame des Anges. But if they 
could not convert the Indians through their schools, they could 
train the youths of the colony into good scholars and faithful 
Catholics, and therefore they lost no time in building a college. 
By that date the order had existed for a century and its system of 
education, drafted by Loyola himself and put into tentative practice 
for 40 years, had been formulated in the Ratio Studiorum, which 
has remained to our day the educational code of every Jesuit Col- 
lege throughout the world. So successful did the system prove 
that, before the close of the 17th century, there existed 769 colleges 
and universities, manned exclusively by Jesuit priests, and enroll- 
ing as students at least one-fourth of a million of the most 



474 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

promising youths of the world. As primary education did not 
enter into the general scheme of the Society, children under twelve 
were not, in Europe, admitted to their schools unless exception- 
ally bright; while dull pupils of more mature age, if unable to 
maintain the desired pace, had to drop out of the race. The 
age limit, however, was not enforced in Canada. That the Jesuit 
College in Quebec was planned and built on such a scale — that it 
was larger than all the public buildings of Quebec combined — only 
expressed the enthusiastic faith of the order in its own high mis- 
sion. Yet that College building was in the next century turned into 
a barrack, and a few years ago was demolished to give place to a 
City Hall, while the less ambitious Seminary has lived and 
prospered. Why? Paradoxical as it may seem, both the success 
and the failure of the Jesuit body are probably due to the splendid 
education of its members. That men so thoroughly trained intel- 
lectually should eschew politics was as impossible in politically-de- 
veloped Europe as in barbarous America ; and it has always been 
their interference in secular affairs that has brought them into 
conflict with the civil powers. On the other hand, the order has 
for four centuries educated more scions of the governing classes 
than any other teaching body, and so attractive have its professors, 
whether as men, friends or trainers, been to their pupils, that even 
such heretics as Voltaire have expressed only kindly recollections 
of the years of tuition spent in a Jesuit College. Moreover, their 
severe training has raised the Jesuits individually above the gross- 
ness into which the mendicant orders have too often fallen, while 
their learning and greater breadth of view have given their faith 
in the essential truths of Christianity a more rational basis than 
that possessed by some other ecclesiastical bodies, whose ortho- 
doxy was merely the orthodoxy of catechism and tradition. A fair 
and well-balanced judgment of this remarkable body of men, 
and of the system under which they worked, is as essential to any 
just estimate of the forces which harve shaped Canadian history, 
as is an unprejudiced view of puritanism to a true comprehension 
of the story of the United States. In certain respects one system 
was simply the antithesis of the other, and yet, as often happens 
with contradictories, they meet at many points in their practical 
outcome. 



The Jesuit College and Church, from Smart's drawing, 1759. 




Interior of the Jesuit Church after the Seige, 1759. 



THE JESUIT COLLEGE IN I72O. 



475 



The last college building, opened for study less than twenty 
years before the Conquest, covered, with its court, more than an 
acre. Four stories rose from Fabrique Street, and two fronted 
on the large gardens and play grounds, which extended to Ann 
Street. In the early days there stretched across St. Stanislas 
Street, extending to the Esplanade Hill, a grove of forest trees 
which the old maps called "The Jesuit Woods." The Church 
jutted from the Northwest angle of the front, and faced the mar- 
ket place and the cathedral. It had formed part of the older col- 
lege, its commencement dating back to 1666, and, prior to its com- 
pletion, service was held in a chapel in the northwest corner of the 
old main building Itself. 

The original College, and the Church as originally built, must 
have possessed even less pretensions to architectural beauty than 
the ungainly structure only recently torn down. Lahontan, in 
1684, was charmed with the College and its beautifully kept gar- 
dens and ice houses, but Charlevoix, himself a Jesuit, describes 
the College in 1720 in most derogatory terms in one of his letters 
to Madame la Duchesse de Lesdiguieres. He tells her that "she has 
doubtless read in the Relations of the beauty of the buildings. 
This was comparatively true when the town was a confused group 
of Frenchmen's huts and Indian hovels. Then the College and 
Fort, being the only stone structures, cut some figure (faisait 
qiielqtie figure), and by contrast struck the early traveler as being 
fine buildings ; and succeeding travelers, as is their wont, simply 
repeated the glowing descriptions. But now that the Indian 
cabins have disappeared, and the French huts have been trans- 
formed into respectable stone houses, the college, which is falling 
into ruins, and whose courtyard is as filthy as a stable yard, actu- 
ally disfigures the town. IMorcover, when it was built, the river 
and harbor could be seen from its upper windows ; but when the 
Cathedral and Seminary slmt out the glorious view, the market 
place supplied a poor substitute in the way of scenery." The 
account of the Church, with its wooden floor, through whose 
open boards the wind whistled with icy blast in winter, is equally 
unpleasing. In a note, however, the author tells us that, in the 
interval between the date of his visit in 1720 and the publication 



47^ QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

of his book in 1744, the college had been partially rebuilt, and had 
been made really beautiful, fort beau, of which complimentary 
statement the present generation, which has seen its walls razed, 
can judge for itself. 

Despite the educational advantages which the College offered, 
it so declined that at the date of the Conquest there were only 
nine members of the order, including two missionaries, in Canada. 
The College and Church suffered seriously from the bombard- 
ment, but the Fathers returned to their restored quarters, re- 
opened their classes in 1761 and carried on their work, when 
their brethren in Louisiana were banished in conformity with 
the decree of 1762, abolishing the order in France and the colonies. 
The British General refused to allow the members of the Jesuits 
in Canada to be replaced by novices ; but the closing of the class- 
ical course in 1768 would seem to have been due, not so much to 
the reduced number of the teaching staff, as to decline in the num- 
ber of students of the higher grades. This diminution may be ac- 
counted for by the emigration of so many of the wealthy class 
after the Conquest ; but it was more probably due to the growing 
popularity of the Seminary, and the increasing suspicion of the 
covert influences of the educational system of the Jesuits, a sus- 
picion which expressed itself in the almost universal suppression 
of the order before the century closed. But though the College 
classes were closed, the Jesuits taught a primary school within 
the College walls till 1776. 

It is unreasonable to criticize their course of study by the canons 
of education of to-day. Quite independently of the fact that 
education was conducted by ecclesiastics to whom Latin was a 
sacred heritage, Latin was the only language of science, in an 
age when the intercourse between nations of different tongues 
was so slight, that it was a rare thing for a student to possess a 
knowledge of any modern language save his own. 

The course of study was, therefore, exclusively classical till 
late in the century, as Father Brosnahan in his controversy with 
President Eliot admits. He allows that the twent5^-five hours 
a week, constituting the class work of Jesuit scholars in the 17th 
Century, were practically devoted to the exclusive study of 




A Maddiuia Ironi ihe Church of llic Jesuits in (Jucl)ec, 
Ijought at the sale of the Jesuit etTects in iMOl. 
Hy penni»ion of COl. II. Neilsoii. 



THE JESUIT SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 



477 



Latin and Greek. As a contrast, in the Georgetown University 
to-day, little more than half of the students' time is devoted to 
the classical languages. However useful, therefore, the training 
of the Jesuit College may have been in whetting the wits and 
tongues of its students for mastery in the rhetorical competition 
which was so important an element in their system, and which 
was practised in Quebec from the first, it was hardly well fitted 
for making engineers, or self-reliant colonists. Tlie strict ob- 
servance of rule ; the profound reverence inculcated for authority ; 
the minute introspection preached and practiced, into motives and 
courses of conduct ; the close supervision, amounting to espionage, 
maintained over the pupils at all times, however calculated to 
restrain them from overt acts of immorality, must have diminished 
originality and weakened the power of initiative and of indepen- 
dent action in their scholars, and given them narrow and suspicious 
views of life, little conducive to effective co-operation with their 
comrades in the mighty task of winning the wilderness and 
holding it for France. This is true despite the fact that as 
individuals the French explorers outstripped all others, for where 
they failed was in combining their forces so as to hold the terri- 
tories they discovered. 

The points of difference between the Jesuit and the Seminary 
system of education were not great enough to make it easy to 
account for the decline of the one and the popularity of the other. 
The priests of the Seminary watched their pupils as sedulously as 
did the Jesuits ; nevertheless, the peculiarly artificial training 
of the Jesuit Father must in some way have created a gap between 
his pupil and himself, such as did not exist between the healthy, 
manly son of the habitant, or the independent city lad, and the 
Seminary priest, who still recognized family ties and continued to 
be an active member of the body social. 

A specific cause of Jesuit unpopularity was undoubtedly their 
wealth, despite the unselfish use to which it was in the main 
turned. As no revenue accrued from the Jesuit College, educa- 
tion being free, and as a large staff of missionaries was supported 
by the order, there was some reason for endowing it with con- 
siderable property. But the accumulation of real estate by the 



478 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



order became early in the colony's history a subject of criticism. 
Their interest in the welfare of the Indian was unwarrantably 
coupled in the popular mind with an interest in the profits of the 
fur trade. Most of their large landed estate was acquired by 
gift from the Crown or the Trading Company in the 17th century, 
and consequently the lands confiscated on the death of the last 
member, Father Casot, in 1799, substantially represent the prop- 
erty owned by the order a century earlier. It consisted of 
twenty acres in the city of Quebec, and nine acres in the City of 
Montreal, including the land now occupied by the City Hall and 
the Court House. In addition the order owned under fiefs and 
seignoral sub-fiefs, and as real estate held in soccage, 7 seignories 
in the District of Quebec ; 2 seignories and three small parcels of 
land in the District of Three Rivers; and, in the District of Mon- 
treal, besides the property in the City, the seignory of La Prairie, 
making in all, as land held under seignorial tenure and otherwise, 
953,820 arpents. The revenue from this very large block of land 
was inconsiderable. The tenants paid insignificant rents, and as 
the land in those early days seldom changed hands, the lods et 
ventes must have been small. 

M. Rivard, the Superintendent of Jesuit Estates, reported the 
revenue from the small remainder of their property that had not 
been disposed of by the Government up to that time, as only 
$6,555.49 between 1856-1857. But whatever the revenue derived 
at the period of which we are speaking, the holding by a single 
religious body of nearly one million acres of the choicest land in 
the Colony must have created in the public mind a measure of the 
same jealousy as was aroused in Old France against the Church, 
when it had become owner of about one-third of the national 
domain. In France the irritation, growing out of the exemption 
of Church property, and of the estates of the privileged classes, 
from taxation, at a time when taxes were pressing with dire 
severity on the body of the nation, was one of the main causes 
of the Revolution. In Canada, where direct taxes for the 
support of the State were never levied, discontent on that 
score was unknown ; but even if the Jesuits did not share in the 
tithes collected from their tenants for the support of the secular 



THE SEMIXARY AS ORGANIZED BY LAVAL. 



479 



clergy, it must have seemed to the habitants unjust to pay any 
officers of the Church both rent and tithes on the same farm, even 
though the rent was in payment for land, and the tithes in support 
of the Church. 

With a view to securing uniformity in the Church Laval 
ordained that the Cathedral Chapter should be selected from the 
priests of the Seminary, and that, subject to the will of himself 
and his successors, the Seminary should control both the appoint- 
ment and the recall of the parish priests of the Diocese. In order 
to reduce the clergy to more absolute dependence, and to regulate 
their remuneration more equitably, the institution from which they 
received their education was made the administrator of the tithes, 
which the King permitted to be imposed for their support. 
The Bishop hoped thus to bind them to their Alma Mater by ties 
of self interest as w^ell as of affection. In making himself and 
his successors the supreme depositaries of ecclesiastical patronage 
within the diocese, he imitated, he claimed, the example of the 
primitive Church, but he had a more recent and less ambiguous 
model in the Constitution of Ignatius Loyola. In this, as in all 
his episcopal conduct, he acted on the suggestion of the Propa- 
ganda, which replied to the inquiry of the nuncio, as to the influ- 
ence the bestowal of the revenue of the Abbey of Mantes by 
the Bishop would have on the Church of Canada, that "though 
the Galilean Church may have certain privileges, there is no need 
to extend them to Canada." 

But such as it was and is, the Seminary has endeared itself to 
every priestly student educated within its walls in a manner to 
which no parallel can be found in any Protestant institution of 
either secular or theological learning. Its power to remove the 
cure and its administration of the tithes became, it is true, the 
subject of bitter controversy in the days of Monseigncur .^aint 
Vallier; but when these grievances were removed by relieving 
it of those special functions, it retained in all essential particulars 
the form given to it by its founder. The spirit he inspired 
into it has survived : and it has preserved certain university fea- 
tures which make it an almost unique model, well worthy of study 
by those who regard the associations and affiliations of college life, 



480 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

and their survival in after years, as amongst the most desirable 
results of a college education. 

Bishop Laval had received an indelible impression from M. de 
Bernieres during his residence in the Hermitage of Caen, and he 
aimed at perpetuating in his Seminary some of the features of 
that peaceful retreat. His intentions as founder of the latter 
institution v^ere expressed in the following regulations : 

First — All priests must submit to the control of the Seminary 
under the direction of the Bishop. 

Second — They must not regard themselves as owners of the 
allowances assigned them for their subsistence, and as a recog- 
nition of their dependence they must render an account year by 
year of their expenses. [These two rules were abrogated by 
Bishop Saint Vallier, when the cures became fixed parish priests, 
under the rule of the Bishop.] 

Third — They must lead so blameless a life that none need ever 
be removed for misconduct. 

Fourth — To sustain their spiritual power they must once a 
year go into retreat at the Seminary. During this absence from 
their charge the Seminary will find a substitute to fill their places. 

Fifth — The Seminary will continue to regard them as children 
of the home, where they will be received and treated with kind- 
ness, whenever they come to Quebec ill or on business. 

Sixth — The Seminary will provide for their wants in sickness 
and health, and make no distinction in the hospitality it offers, 
be the rank of the ecclesiastic who seeks it what it may. 

Seventh — To encourage and console its priests when absent, a 
regular correspondence, couched in kindly terms, will be main- 
tained with each of them. 

Eighth — And when from age, hardship, or infirmity they are 
unfit for further work, they will find in the Seminary a home till 
death releases them, and afterwards their old friends, who are 
left behind, will pray for the repose of their souls. 

What wonder that, with such a constitution, the Seminary of 
Quebec has remained the corner-stone of the Roman Catholic 
Church of Canada, and that its founder was considered by its 
pupils a Saint, well worthy of canonization. 



A DEEPLY-ROOTED INSTITUTION. 



And Bishop Laval himself lived up to his principles. A noble 
of France, he stripped himself of all he possessed, gave to the 
Seminary his personal property, the seignories which had been 
granted him, and the proceeds of the Abbey of Alontigny, which 
had been conferred upon him by the King; and to the day of his 
death lived an austere but human life — either in the Seminary 
or at its industrial farm of St. Joachim, on the simple fare of the 
Seminary priest, taking more than his full share of the drudgery 
of ecclesiastical duties. 

The priest still returns to the Seminary as to his home, and 
the provision to keep up systematic correspondence with the 
Bishop is maintained. In the Bishop's Palace there is a large 
library of bound volumes of Manuscript, consisting in great part 
of such letters, and containing invaluable records, bearing pri- 
marily on ecclesiastical affairs, but incidentally on the social and 
political history of New France during the past two centuries and 
a half. 

The first Greater Seminary was built of wood on the site of the 
present Episcopal Palace, forming part of the sixteen acres of 
land bought from Guillemette Hebert, widow of the old settler 
Guillaume Couillard. Near by, within a few feet of the principal 
wing of the present Petit Seminaire, was a stone building belong- 
ing to Madame Couillard which th-e Bishop bought and altered 
for the accommodation of his Petit Seminaire.* This was 
occupied in 1678. This agrees with \^illeneuve's plan of the 
city made in 1670, which shows two buildings, one apparently 
on the site of the present Presbytery. It was occupied by the 
Bishop and the priests of the Seminary, who were also members of 
the Cathedral Chapter, and by the parish priests of the city. The 
school and boarding quarters were somewhat apart in the north- 
east corner of the garden. In Franquclin's plan of 1683 both build- 
ings had disappeared, for in 1^79, before sailing for Europe, the 
Bishop laid the foundation stone of a substantial stone building 
for his Greater Seminary, to replace the wooden structure. This 



*The Abbe Lavcrdiere unearthed the foundations of M. Couillard's 
house in 1868. 



482 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



safer and more commodious building joined the Petit Seminaire 
at right angles, and was opened for occupation on the Bishop's 
return in 1680. 

The buildings for the accommodation of the Greater and the 
Lesser Seminaries were finally constructed on the plan exhibited 
by the buildings of to-day ; and so substantially was the work done 
that some of the original walls still stand. 

One of the fires which have been the scourge of Quebec broke 
out in the afternoon of November 15, 1701, when the pupils and 
most of the teachers were absent on a holiday at Sillery. The 
Cathedral was with difficulty saved from the flames, which in three 
hours reduced the Presbytery and the School to ruins. Bishop 
Laval was confined to bed by illness in his room in the Seminary, 
but was carried across the Market Place to the Jesuit College, 
where he and his clergy were hospitably entertained for a month 
till quarters were prepared for them in the unfinished Episcopal 
Palace, which Bishop Saint Vallier had commenced in 1693. Here 
he remained only till the seminary was rebuilt, as, nothwithstand- 
ing his noble lineage and episcopal rank, he objected to living in a 
palace. Misfortune still pursued the Seminary. During the year 
following the fire of 1701 the Seminary had been rebuilt and 
enlarged to its present superficial dimensions, when it was again 
destroyed by fire. Again the aged Bishop accepted the kind invi- 
tation of the Jesuits, and resided with them for two months till a 
small room in the porter's lodge, which the fire had spared, was 
fitted up for him. There he lived in the grandeur of simplicity till 
death released him in 1708. The Porter's Lodge stood where the 
Chapel was subsequently built. The old chapel, in which it had 
been his desire that his remains should rest, had not been rebuilt 
when he died. But the site of the present chapel is more hallowed 
by being the scene of his death than it could have been had it 
merely protected his ashes. 

The first disaster seemed to invigorate rather than depress the 
aged Bishop. Some of the Directors proposed to allow the funds 
to accumulate before rebuilding — not so the indomitable old man. 
Navigation had closed. But he at once dispatched M. Joncaire to 
France, by way of Boston, to carry the deplorable tidings to Mon- 




1 he i'ari>h Chapel and Caihedral of (Quebec l)ff(>re ihc alloralioii 
of the Fa(;ade in 1S4;>. 
Itoih liartlett's Canatiitiii Srciiirv. 




1 lir r.aviliia — lliitraiu c to the Seiniiinrv ami part <>f the Seminary I'nildings. 



SEMINARY TWICE DESTROYED BY FIRE. 



seigneur de Saint \'allier. But neither his own pleading nor 
Monseigneur 's sad tale could wring much money out of the empty 
pockets of the people, or induce the King to spare a gift of more 
than 4,000 francs a year till the Seminary should be rebuilt. 
The poor Canadians, spurred by the Bishop's courage and the 
example of self-denial set by himself and the Directors, con- 
tributed the balance, wherewith to rebuild the schools on an 
enlarged scale. 

The Seminary possessed substantial resources from the first, 
but owed most of its available cash to the Bishop's liberality. The 
revenues of the Abbey of Maubec, conferred on him were turned 
over to the Seminary. He secured for it also the Isle aux 
Coudres, the beach and shores of the St. Lawrence and the St. 
Charles from the Sault au Matelot to the Hotel Dieu; also the 
Seignory of Beaupre. His personal property was given on con- 
dition that — First, the Seminary support for three months of each 
year two missionaries among the Indians. [Of this condition the 
Institution was relieved by the donor in 1699.] Second, that the 
priests of the Seminary say a low mass daily for the repose of his 
soul, and those of the departed members of the Seminary of 
Foreign Missions. Third, that the seminary support and educate 
for the priesthood eight pupils to be chosen by the Directors. 

The revenues derived from these seignories and French 
Abbeys would not, however, have sufficed to maintain the teaching 
staff, still less to erect the buildings, had not the Seminary con- 
trolled the tithes, and been the patrons and the bankers of the 
clergy of the diocese, whether engaged in education or in parochial 
work. As the population increased, the revenue from fees and 
board, moderate as tlie charges were for these, became a sub- 
stantial source of income.'^ 



*Till 1730 scholars were boarded, clothed and taught by the Seminary 
free of charge, but after 1730 the relatives were required to furnish clothes 
and books. At present the scale of charges is: In the Petit Seminaire, 
for board, lodging, tuition, $111 per annum. Demi-pensionnaires, who dine 
in the Seminary, pay $6 a month. In the Grand Seminaire the annual 
fee for board, lodging and tuition is $120. 

Moreover, in those early days the Parish of Quebec, as well as the 



484 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

The need of a Catholic University was recognized by the 
Fathers of the First Provincial Council, held in 185 1. Among 
the various seminaries which might claim the right of originating 
and conducting it, the choice could only lie between the Seminary 
of Quebec and that of St. Sulpice in Montreal, which opened its 
doors under the Abbe Queylus, manned by the able priests from 
the parent Seminary in Paris, some five or six years before Bishop 
Laval issued his ordinance for the establishment of the Quebec 
Seminary. The Seminary of Quebec was chosen, and it has right 
loyally fulfilled the trust, having out of its own funds expended in 
the erection and equipment of a university, which could be called 
by no other name than that of Laval, about $300,000. And the 
standard it has maintained has been worthy of the name it bears. 

The Chateau of St. Louis has disappeared; the old fortifica- 
tions are crumbling ; the guns on the Grand Battery have become 
useless ; the Jesuit College, where highly trained teachers carried 
out a system of free tuition,* was first devoted to secular uses, then 
demolished; but the Seminary still stands, projecting the past 
into the present, and more vigorous and useful than ever. Within 
its old buildings priests, imbued with its old traditions, and true 
to its old constitutions, still teach. As a corporation it has kept 



Cathedral Chapter, was supplied by, and at the cost of, the Seminary, in 
accordance with the Bishop's original plan. The arrangement survived, not 
without some misgivings by Bishop Laval's successor, till 1768. In that 
year the Seminary resigned its cure to the Bishop on account of the 
growing burden of the charge, both on its staff and on its resources. 

Bishop Hamel, in his sketch of Laval University in "Canada — an 
Encyclopaedia," says, "The greatest income of the Seminary is a negative 
one, and consists in the fact that the thirty priests who are employed as 
professors in the University and in the College give all their time and their 
energy without remuneration. They are not paid. They have their board 
with heat and light, and are allowed $10.00 per month for their clothing, 
mending and washing, and this is all. The Superior of the Seminary, who 
is de jure the principal of the University, receives no other salary." 

*A feature of the Jesuit Colleges which has deservedly won them 
students, and entitled the Society to credit, is that the education provided 
both in school, college, and university has always been absolutely free. 



Laval's Chair now in the Quebec Seminary. 



INFLUENCE OF SEMINARY EDUCATION. 



485 



aloof from politics and its course of study has expanded — so far 
as the limitations imposed by the Church's regulations would 
allow — with the growth of human knowledge and the require- 
ments of modern society. 

Whether a system of education framed by ecclesiastics and 
superintended by priests builds up boys into energetic, progressive, 
independent men may be questioned, but it must be admitted that 
it makes them gentlemanly. Bishop Saint Yallier himself was 
struck, as even the most casual observer is to-day, by the appro- 
priate behavior of the little Seminarists, who serve as acolytes dur- 
ing mass. The exquisite grace with which they enter two by two, 
and after bowing to the altar, salute each other before taking their 
seats, is a charming exhibiton of what careful training can accom- 
plish. The influence is felt throughout life of such acts and 
gestures of reverence and politeness, and these, repeated genera- 
tion after generation, become hereditary and leave an indelible 
impression of refinement and gentle bearing on the race. 

It must not, however, be supposed that complete satisfaction 
with the management of the Seminary and its funds has always 
reigned. Its wealth, however benevolently expended, created 
jealousy. There is a letter from a M. de la Marche, a nephew 
of M. Boucher of Three Rivers, to Count Pontchartrain, the 
French Colonial ^linister, complaining of the cupidity of the 
Seminary, as shown by the wealth it had accumulated in lands 
and houses, and the miserable pittances doled out to the poor 
cures ; also of the preference shown to its own infirm students 
when incapacitated for work — all of which charges were partially- 
true, without being unanswerable. 

While Bishop Laval was not so prescient as to depart from the 
standards and systems of primary and classical education preva- 
lent in his day and long afterwards, he did recognize the need of a 
technical school, in which those who showed no aptitude for 
purely intellectual pursuits could learn a trade. The experiment 
of such a training grew out of his experience at the Seminary, 
where he soon found that there existed youths whose natural bent 
was toward any other occupation than the priesthood, and who 
would be more useful to society as farmers or mechanics. To 



486 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



meet this want he estabhshed a branch of the Seminary under 
the towering cliff of Cap Tourmente, at the Grande Ferme de Saint 
Joachim, where an elementary literary education was given and 
some instruction in practical and theoretical agriculture and the 
manual trades.* Bishop Saint Vallier, with the laudable inten- 
tion of enlarging the scope and usefulness of the Farm School, 
introduced into the course of study a classical element ; but it was 
soon found to be foreign to the purposes of the Institution, as well 
as uncongenial to its pupils, and it was abandoned. When Bishop 
Laval's controversy with his successor was at its height, in 1691, 
not wishing to embarrass him by his presence in Quebec, he took 
up his abode at Saint Joachim, and the farm became so dear to 
him that in 1693 he founded six scholarships under the following 
conditions, which express clearly his intentions in establishing the 
school, and bespeak his good sound common sense: "The six 
children must be natives, of good habits and fit for work. Their 
choice is to rest with the Superior and Directors. They are to be 
fed, clad and trained to habits of politeness and piety, instructed 
in reading and writing, drilled to do honest work, and in the prac- 
tice of the trade by which they expect to gain their livelihood, till 
they attain the age of 18, when they should be able to provide for 
themselves." 

Eight years afterwards M. Soumande — a priest of the Sem- 
inary and Director of the Farm — created three more scholar- 
ships, and endowed the school with 8,000 francs, to be devoted to 
the salary of a master who should train the three youths as school 
teachers. 

In addition, therefore, to founding a Seminary, which has 
grown into one of the great Continental Universities, the Bishop 
showed his appreciation of the value of technical education and 
training, by establishing, with the assistance of his able directors, 
the Grande Ferme des Maizerets. He doubtless approved the 



*Tbe Technical School at Saint Joachim has long been closed, but the 
Seminary farm is still cultivated. There Laval himself rested and gratified 
the love of nature which was so amiable a trait of his character ; and 
thither to-day the priests of the Seminary go for rest and recreation. 



THE SECOND BISHOP OF QUEBEC. 



487 



action of ]\Ions. Soumande, who in the year 1702 added a normal 
school to the technical department. Thus did this truly great 
man round off his storm-tossed, militant carreer. His later years — 
he lived till 1708 — were not ruffled by any serious controversy 
with either the Governor or his episcopal successor, who was a 
prisoner in England or France from 1700 to 1713. 

The second Bishop of Quebec was almost as picturesque 
a figure on the stage of Canada as his predecessor, but was 
far from possessing so creative a spirit. He from the first 
opposed Laval's plan of making the Seminary the trust company, 
as it were, of the parochial clergy. Thus after Laval's self-control 
had been tested in France, it was put to a much more severe trial 
in Canada, and that, not by a civil governor or a member of the 
State, but by his own successor in the Episcopal See, a man, 
endowed by virtue of his office, with the same spiritual pre- 
rogatives and authority which he himself had claimed to possess. 
When the new Bishop reversed Laval's whole church policy, by 
which the appointment and support of the secular clergy were 
vested in the Seminary, he did so in a manner as arbitrary as 
Frontenac himself could have adopted. Yet, although the subject 
was one of far more importance to both Church and State than 
most of the matters which in his earlier years he had deemed 
so vital, the retired Bishop now confined himself to expressing his 
opinions with vigor, but without anger. He did not conceal his 
poignant regret, but he refrained from imputing ignoble motives 
to those who were wounding him and his old colleagues to the 
quick : and when further opposition could only have embarrassed 
his successor and distressed the Church, he retired to his seminary 
farm at St. Joachim. The mellowing influence of age and mature 
judgment was never better exemplified than in thus tempering the 
impetuosity of a noble character. 

When Saint A^allier first went to Canada as Laval's Grand 
Vicar he was fascinated, in the course of a tour which he at once 
made of his immense diocese, stretching from the ocean to the 
Lakes, by certain attractive phases of Canadian society; by the 
free, generous and genial character of the 7'ov(J(!^curs : by the pure, 
simple and self-reliant habits of the habitants; by the open-handed 



488 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



hospitality of all classes, and the genuine earnestness of the 
Seminary priests. "The people, generally speaking," so he wrote 
in his famous letter on the State of the Church, "are as devout as 
the clergy appear saintly. One remarks among them the same 
virtues as we admire in the primitive Christians — simplicity, de- 
votion and charity." To one brought up as he had been in the 
artificial, stifling, not to say immoral, atmosphere of the Court, 
still young and with little knowledge of mankind at large, Canada 
seemed by contrast like paradise itself, and as such he described it. 

But when he returned to Canada, one illusion after another was 
dispelled. He came into close touch with the city, though only 
a provincial one, and its sins ; he recognized that the love of power 
was as strong in priest as in politician, and as likely to distort 
the judgment of the cleric as of the civil ruler. Then, like all. 
men of vigor and passion, when they change their opinions, he 
went from one extreme to another. Instead of primitive purity, 
he now saw only sin and selfishness in priest and layman, while 
he described the country as being on the very verge of ruin. 

Bishop Saint Vallier sailed for France in the Autumn of 170a, 
but on his return voyage was captured by the English, held a 
prisoner for some years, exchanged, but forbidden by the French 
King to return to his diocese till 1712. It was perhaps as well. 
He was as firmly persuaded of his infallibility as the great prelate, 
his predecessor. But Laval was consistent — Saint Vallier was 
not ; and infallibility without consistency is not convincing or con- 
ducive to obedience. He therefore always had a batch of quarrels 
on his hands, and possessed a most unfortunate faculty for making 
enemies and for doing the right thing in the wrong way. The 



*Though M. de Saint Vallier had been selected as his assistant by- 
Bishop Laval himself on the recommendation of Pere Louis de Valois, 
a Jesuit, and M. Tronson, superior of the College of St. Sulpice, his con- 
firmation by the King was from motives of policy. He had been for years 
attached to the Court as almoner. He was a man of family and property, 
and therefore, according to the customs of the time, by rank and social 
position, eligible for a bishopric. His conduct had been exemplary; he 
was a man of abundant zeal, energy and honest intention, though, as 
afterward appeared, lacking in self-restraint and prudence. 



ILL-DIRECTED ZEAL. 



489 



breach between himself and the Seminary was never completely 
healed. He had alienated the attachment of the Grey Nuns of the 
Hotel Dieu by establishing the General Hospital under the charge 
of the same order, but not as a branch of the parent institution. 
He had been in closest friendship with Frontenac, inasmuch as 
neither loved the Jesuits and both were at feud with Laval ; and 
yet he quarrelled with him on so trifling a matter as a proposed 
performance of the comedy, "Tartuffe.'' Though the Intendant, 
Champigny, was a very faithful son of the Church, yet because he 
espoused the side of the Ladies of the Hotel Dieu against the 
Bishop's pet scheme, the General Hospital, he incurred the severe 
displeasure of the prelate. He used the Recollets most dexter- 
ously for a time against Bishop Laval and the Jesuits, and re- 
warded them accordingly ; then quarreled with them over a matter 
of precedence involving Governor Callieres of Montreal, and 
closed their church at that place. With a perverseness beyond 
conception he alienated his friends ; forged w^eapons for his ene- 
mies ; and made his position so untenable that, as he would not 
resign his diocese, he was twice detained for years in France at 
the will of the King. 

He was generous and yet often inconsistent. He gave 
liberally one moment, and withdrew the gift the next. He built a 
costly episcopal palace, and lived like a mendicant in his Gen- 
eral Hospital. Taking everything into account, Canada owes 
him much. His General Hospital has been a boon to Quebec, and 
the parochial system of fixed cures, independent of the Seminary, 
has bestowed on the Church organization an elasticity which it 
would probably not have possessed under Bishop Laval's system, 
and has enlisted more warmly for his priests the sympathy of 
their parishioners. 

Whatever his faults, his openhandcdness and sympathy with 
the suffering and the indigent atoned for them in the eyes of ene- 
mies as well as of friends ; for Frontenac, in almost the last sen- 
tence of his last dispatch, commended him to the ]\rinistcr "for his 
charity in succoring the poor and his activity in every good work.'' 



CHAPTER XXVIL 



Quebec as It Appeared at the End of the Seventeenth 

Century. 

With the close of the seventeenth century terminated the 
''heroic period" of Canadian history. Frontenac died in 1698; 
Bishop Laval lingered until 1708; La Salle had been mur- 
dered in 1687; the formative period of French colonial rule 
was drawing to its close. 

City life with its clerical and official elements and its segrega- 
tion into classes was assuming a type not dififering widely from 
that of to-day; and the shores of the St. Lawrence from Les 
Eboulements to Lachine were fringed by the homes of habitants, 
clustered around their churches. Though the colony was not a 
century old, the people had acquired a distinct national character. 
The educational effects of self-reliance, despite the weakening 
influence of their political institutions, had, in less than three gen- 
erations, created in Canada a farming population very different 
from the tillers of the soil in Old France. Many of the colonists 
had been drawn from the seafarers of Brittany and Nor- 
mandy, and when sailors turn farmers they carry some of the 
habits and mental characteristics acquired in their old calling into 
the practice of their new. Others had been soldiers of the Carig- 
nan-Salieres Regiment, who in fighting all over Europe had 
gained a certain cosmopolitan character before reaching the St. 
Lawrence. Lahontan tells us that when he was garrisoned with 
his three companies on the Cote de Beaupre, in the year 1691, he 
was struck with the air, not only of comfort, but of independence 
which distinguished his hosts. He soon found that he must not 
call them peasants. They were "habitants," and resented the term 
peasant as vehemently as would a Spaniard. "Perhaps," he adds, 



Plan of the Upper and Lower Towns of Quebec in 1G70. 



QUEBEC IN 1698. 



491 



''because they were not compelled to recognize allegiance to the 
seigneur by the payment of sel et taille. Perhaps because they 
have the right of fishing and hunting. Be the explanation what 
it may, their free life puts them on the level of the nobles them- 
selves." 

Not only the gallant Captain Lahontan, and the sedate La 
Potherie, but the Swedish naturalist, Kalm, all agree in praising 
the delightful gaiety and intelligence of the Canadian women, the 
self-reliant demeanor of the men, and the courtesy among all 
classes, which even entitled the habitant and his wife to be ad- 
dressed as monsieur and }}iadanie. The beauty and charm of man- 
ner of the Canadian girl has been the theme of every traveler since 
then. Even the Jesuit Father Charlevoix is rapturous on the sub- 
ject, and not without reason attributes these qualities to the educa- 
tion the girls receive from the nuns, who, like the priests, drew a 
distinction between education in its wider sense and mere intel- 
lectual training. But the greater freedom of intercourse which 
boys and girls in Canada have always enjoyed, as compared with 
their kinsfolk in Old France, has also been a potent factor in devel- 
oping certain national traits which two hundred years ago shocked 
Governor Denonville. who saw in them only symptoms of danger- 
ous lawlessness and filial disrespect. 

The river above Quebec was still considered as unnavigable for 
ocean ships, small as they were in those days. It was not until 
after Kirke's conquest that trading vessels ventured above Tadou- 
sac, nor was it until the steam tug came to the assistance of the 
sailini? vessel in 1809 that Quebec lost her prestige as practically 
the head of ocean navigation. ^Montreal did not become a port 
of entry until 1832, when T17 vessels, coasting and foreign, dis- 
charged 27.7x3 tons ^arc^o on her wharves. 

Quebec itself was still a very small town. The religious cen- 
sus taken by Bishop Laval in t68t assigns to it a population of 239 
families and 1,354 souls, but it had grown to 1,988 souls before the 
census of 1698 was taken. Tn the whole government of Quob'-c 
there were onlv T.460 houses, 37 churches and 26 mills. The 
Indian population on the five reservations consisted of 1.540. of 
whom 355 were in the Abenat-i and ATontagnais settlements of the 



492 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

Chaudiere, and 122 in the Huron village of Lorette. Being at 
the head of navigation, and no trade being lawful with the English 
colonies, it was the mercantile depot for the whole interior con- 
tinent. Between the French and English colonies not only was 
trade forbidden, but traveUing to the Hudson without a permit 
was punishable by death. New England would have been wilHng 
enough to open a highway that could be used either for war or 
for trade ; but Canada's safety as well as her theological purity 
depended on isolation.* It was not until 1730 that there was even 



*For the state of Canada and Quebec at the period now in question we 
have in the Edits et Ordonnances of the Sovereign Council a mass of 
official decrees and correspondence dealing with every imaginable subject, 
from minute regulations of the daily life of the people to important state 
affairs. But just as the gossipy Journal of the Jesuits gives us a more 
intimate and homely view of current events than the more studied 
narratives of the Relations, so we have a more lifelike portrayal of people 
as they were two hundred years ago in Lahontan's and La Potherie's books 
of travel than in the official records. Baron Lahontan was a sailor, 
though he had command of some companies of soldiers in La Barre's 
war with the Iroquois. He took somewhat free and liberal views of men, 
women and manners, and expressed them so frankly, that he was forced 
to publish his book in Belgium. He arrived in Quebec just as La Salle 
had reached there with his startling story of the Mississippi, and was 
hurrying on to report his great discoveries in France. Even though the 
great explorer may have kept his secret from the .public, the guests of 
the Chateau must have known it. Lahontan's adventurous spirit was 
moved, but not sufficiently so to induce him to forego the good things of 
life, and exchange the charms of Canadian female society for those of the 
Illinois squaw. La Potherie was less of a gallant than Lahontan, and not 
nearly so good a story teller. He was with the fleet that Iberville commanded 
when he recovered Hudson Bay, after having performed his daring and 
successful exploits in Newfoundland. He also relates events in a series of 
letters, which, though not as fresh and amusing as Lahontan's, are probably 
somewhat truer to facts. 

It was towards the close of the first half of the eighteenth century that 
Kalm, the Swedish naturalist, visited the St. Lawrence and made those 
minute and accurate observations of the country and people which have 
rendered the book he subsequently published a complete repertory of 
information on the subject. Canada changed so slowly that the next half 
century made no very noticeable difference in the aspect of the land or the 
character of its inhabitants. 



NATUR.\L FEATURES OF THE CITY. 



493 



a road between Quebec and ^Montreal. The rivalry between the 
two towns had existed from the earhest day. When in 1658 it was 
deemed advisable to send two of the Hotel Dieu nuns from Que- 
bec to A^illemarie, the transfer had to be made secretly by reason 
of the opposition of the ^Montreal Company. Again, when it was 
proposed to appoint a successor to Bishop Laval, ^Montreal claimed 
the see in virtue of her more central position; failing that, she 
held that she was at least entitled to have a bishop of her own. 
Commercial rivalry aggravated ecclesiastical jealousy. When 
de Lauzon virtually confiscated the store of the Montreal Com- 
pany in Quebec, and d'Avaugour confirmed the action, the process 
was begun which long continued to cause dissatisfaction in Mon- 
treal — that of compelling the western town to trade w^ith the 
eastern, and so rendering the ^Montreal merchants contributory 
to the wholesale houses of Quebec. 

The city itself has changed but little, for it possesses the ad- 
vantage to the historian and antiquary over many another city that 
its leading topographical features are so prominent, that they must 
always determine its general plan. ^Mountain Hill, when it was a 
mere bridle path up a steep, rocky ridge, was what it is to-day — the 
only direct road from the beach to the summit of the cliff, or 
from the Lower to the Upper Town. The direction of the streets 
was determined by strongly marked natural elevations or depres- 
sions in the contour of the city site, except when deflected for the 
purpose of reaching or avoiding the large tracts given in the early 
days to the religious bodies or subsequently bought by them. * 

Nevertheless some natural features have disappeared. The 
stream which De Gaspe in his "Les Anciens Canadiens" describes 
as running, even in his day, from Cape Diamond and rippling 
through the market place between the Cathedral and the Jesuit 
College, has been absorbed by the drainage system of the town. 
Not until 1853 did Quebec enjoy the advantage of a water system 
or efficient sewage, and some of us still recollect the water cart 



♦The city of Quebec contained, when the seignorial tenure act 
passed in 1854, ten original concessions subject to the charge of lods ei 
rentes on each change of ownership. 



494 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

drivers backing into the dirty water of the Cul de Sac, bucketing 
the turbid fluid into their barrels, and distributing it at 12^ cents 
(sevenpence halfpenny) per barrel into other barrels in the cellars 
of the upper town houses. No wonder that during the cholera 
epidemic of 1832 one-ninth of the whole population was swept 
away in a few weeks — some 3,000 souls out of a population of 
27,000. 

In 1637 twelve acres in the heart of the future city were ceded 
to the Jesuits, who at once commenced building their college 
thereon. Twelve more were deeded to the Duchess d'Aiguillon 
for the Grey Nuns, whose hospital was under way when they 
arrived in 1639. This tract lay to the north and east of the Jesuits' 
ground, and occupied the brink of the steep cliff overlooking the 
estuary of the St. Charles. The Hospital and garden now 
occupy part only of the original tract, as the nuns have laid out in 
streets and sold a large portion of the property, including their 
old graveyard, lying to the east of their enclosed ground. An- 
other grant of twelve acres was made to the Ursuline Nuns. It 
lay close along the west line of the Jesuit property. On it 
they commenced building immediately on their arrival. At a 
later date they likewise sold, for residence purposes, portions of 
land lying on the outskirts of their grant. There is in their 
archives an interesting plan submitted to and approved by Fron- 
tenac, showing the plots they proposed laying out for secular 
purposes. The space occupied by Champlain's Chapelle de la 
Recouvrance was too small to accommodate the Presbytery, and 
therefore additional ground was acquired for it and the parish 
church, which was already erected when Bishop Laval arrived. 
The Bishop lost no time in securing for his Seminary a large 
tract, extending from the rear of the Cathedral to the cliffs over- 
hanging the St. Lawrence and the mouth of the St. Charles. Dur- 
ham and Dufferin Terraces were occupied by the Chateau of St. 
Louis and by a battery of small guns, which still stands, a monu- 
ment of the past, to the west of Frontenac Hotel. The site of the 
Court House was even then devoted to law as administered by the 
senechatissee. It had been the meeting place, it is supposed, of 
the Sovereign Council prior to temporary occupation of Talon's 




5&(-LtTnrCHAMPLA|Nt St 




Little Champlain Street. 



ECCLESIASTICAL PROPERTY. 



495 



brewery and pending the erection of the Intendant's palace. The 
adjacent ground, on a portion of which is now built the Episcopal 
Cathedral, was ceded to the Recollets, whose Church extended 
over part of the present Place d'Armes. Bishop Saint A'allier in- 
creased the area of ecclesiastical property by securing for his 
palace a site adjoining the Seminary Garden to the west, near 
the summit of ^Mountain Hill. 

Thus of the total area of about eighty-three acres which the 
old Upper Town covered, a far larger area was occupied by the 
religious communities, and assigned to defence or other public 
purposes, than even to-day, when, excluding the esplanade and 
glacis of the Citadel, which were not then within the city limits, 
about 40 per cent, of the area of the city consists of ecclesiastical 
and public property. The Jesuit College reservation has ceased 
to be religious and become municipal property. The Recollet 
tract has changed hands, but most of it is still in the possession of 
a religious body. The Ursulines and the Hospitalieres have 
slightly contracted their reservations, but it is signficant of the 
stability and conservatism of the Church that it recognizes the 
power which resides in real estate, and can rarely be tempted to 
convert it even into money. The characteristics which pervaded 
old Quebec are still stamped on the modern town, and the spirit of 
the past is there expressed as nowhere else on the Continent by the 
same old walls, enclosing the same old gardens, colleges, nun- 
neries and hospitals.* 



* The census of 1716 enumerates the streets of the Upper Town, 
and indicates that the Upper Town consisted of a small group of houses 
clustered around the Market Place or the Place Notre Dame, and stretch- 
ing out along the Grande Allee and St. John Street. The names are still 
familiar — Rue Saint Lnuis, Des Jardins, because it ran along the Jesuit 
Garden ; Sainte Anne, which was then a short street corresponding only 
to that part of St. Ann Street, which now bounds the English Cathedral; 
Treasure Lane, not named, but de<?cribed a? a lane running from the Place 
d'Armes to the Cemetery near the Pre.sbytery ; Rue Buade, as it exists 
to-day; a nameless street corresponding to Rue St. Famille and Garneau ; 
Rue Couillard, terminating at the Cemetery of the Hotel Dieu ; Rue des 
Pauvres, now Rue Fabrique; Rue Saint Jean, extension to the Fortifica- 
tion; St. Nicholas. Quartier du Palais; de la Montague or Mountain Hill. 



49^ QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

Thus while the formation of the promontory renders it impos- 
sible to cut a single level street within the confines of the town, 
these large concessions, and the necessity they imposed of con- 
forming the streets to their outlines, brought it about that in no 
section of the town has it been possible to lay out the streets with 
a simple view to symmetry and convenience. 

La Potherie drew a picture of Quebec at this period, with its 
straggling row of houses extending up the beach of the St. 
Charles, and in the other direction encircling the base of Cape 
Diamond, but clustered three and four deep at the foot of Moun- 
tain Hill around the old Company's stores, where recently the 
Church of Notre Dame de la Victoire had been built to commem- 
orate the defeat of the naval expedition under Sir William 
Phipps. Plere the mercantile community dwelt and transacted its 
business in substantial two-story houses and warehouses, rebuilt 
of stone after the destructive fire of 1682. A battery of guns 
is seen planted to the north of the Cul de Sac, extending out into 
the river. And three substantial wharves occupied what is still 
the busy portion of the river front. Lahontan complained that 
they were of wood, and of wood they are to this day. Houses 
lined both sides of Mountain Hill, as they did until the old 
"Gazette" office was removed in the middle of the last century. 
Above that point, in ascending, the grounds of the Bishop's palace 
occupied the space to the right which used to be the old cemetery. 
This spot on the flank of the hill was doubtless selected as the 
first burial ground because accessible to the dwellers both below 
and on the cliff, when the dead had to be carried to their last rest- 

Notre Dame de Menlles and Champlain from the top of staircase to the 
base of Cape Diamond; Cul de Sac; Sous le Fort; Petite Riviere, from 
the General Hospital to the house of Dion; Rue Sault au Matelot, dark 
and narrow under the shadow of the cliff, existed then. Saint Peter Street 
had been reclaimed from the river, and is mentioned in a concession by 
Governor La Barre to the Jesuits; but St. Paul Street was not opened 
until 1816; though a few houses were built on the beach of the St. Charles. 

Very interesting information about the fortifications and streets is 
given by Lemoine in a paper on these subjects published in 1875, in notes 
to Gosselin's Monseigneur de Saint Vallier and in Doughty*s recent books 
on Quebec and its fortifications. 



Picture of (Quebec, from La Potherie. 




Map ot (^)Ufl)cc, iiuMi^licd ill Nuinhrr^ in 1 7"»'l, 



Bishop's Palace, from Richard Short's drawing, 1759. 




The Chapel of the Bishop's Palace, where the 
First House of Assembly met in 1792. 
From Bourne's Picture of Quebec. 



THE bishop's palace. 



497 



ing place on men's shoulders. Xo fortifications or gates had yet 
been erected on the cliff facing the river front to the north of the 
Chateau. This, as the traveller ascended the hill, towered to the 
left. 

To the right, overlooking the river, was the Episcopal Palace, 
built by Bishop Saint Vallier on three acres of ground bought, 
together with a good two-storied stone house, from Mons. Pro- 
vost in 1688. The house was incorporated into the palace. The 
architectural decoration and the dimensions of the palace bespeak 
not only a more ambitious taste on the part of Bishop Saint \^al- 
lier, as compared with his predecessor Laval, but the transition of 
the colony from that primitive stage in which self-defence and 
the supply of life's necessities absorbed every faculty, to that later 
one in which it becomes possible to devote some thought to the 
elevation and adornment of existence. Although the palace was 
not completed in accordance with the original plan, it yet pre- 
sented, as seen from the river, an imposing two-storied elevation, 
which to the eye gained additional height, by appearing to rise 
from the precipitous cliff.* 

The yard of the palace was entered beneath a handsome gate- 
way from ^lountain Street, and the fagade represented the only 
real piece of decorative architecture in Quebec. The wall of the 
Bishop's palace separated his garden from that of the Seminary. 
There was then no Grand Battery or Rampart Street, for the Sem- 
inary Garden extended to the brink of the cliff ; and nearly, if not 
quite, the whole space now occupied by the Seminary, its garden, 
the Laval L'niversity and the streets intervening between the Sem- 
inary gardens and those of the Hotel Dieu, was divided between 
these two institutions. In the midst of its spacious grounds stood 
the Seminary, built of stone. Curving around in front of the 



* As the copy of Robert Short's drawing shows, the Palace, owing to its 
exposed position, suffered lamentably during the siege of 1759, and, 
when repaired, its modest architectural adornments were not replaced, if 
we may judge from the picture of the Parliament House, into which it 
was finally converted. The cut copied from Bourne's Quebec, 1829, shows 
the chapel and a wing of the Palace in the foreground. In the background 
rises the Chateau of St. Louis, which had not then been destroyed by fire. 



498 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

present Bishop's palace, which was built on property bought in 
1843 by Bishop Turgeon, when the old palace was sold to the gov- 
ernment for a Parliament building, the street then, or soon after- 
wards called Buade, after Frontenac, must have been entered. It 
led into the market place of Notre Dame, between the Presbytery, 
the cemetery to which Bishop Saint Vallier transferred the dead 
from the old burying ground on Mountain Hill, and the Cathedral 
to the right, and a block of houses to the left which was built when 
the Huron fort, that occupied the ground between Buade Street 
and the Place d'Armes, was abandoned on the removal of the 
Hurons to St. Foy. But the small block of ground between the 
Market Place and the present St. Ann Street seems to have been 
the most populous section of the Upper Town, for there was little 
room for houses between the Jesuit property and that of the Hotel 
Dieu, or between the Jesuits' gardens and those of the Ursulines. 
St. John Street, the Rue d'Aiguillon, and the Cote d'Abraharn 
were the highways to the Recollet Monastery of Notre Dame des 
Anges, subsequently the General Hospital of Saint Vallier, and 
these streets or roads were built upon from the earliest times. 
According to the census of 1681, twice as many families made 
their homes in the Lower Town as in the Upper. 

The steeple of the Cathedral rose conspicuously above the town 
(the tower and fagade of the basilica as they appear to-day were 
built during the last century), and those of the chapels of the 
Seminary, the Jesuit College, the Ursuline nunnery, the Hotel 
Dieu and the Recollet Monastery pointed heavenwards over the 
one-storied houses standing among their gardens and such of 
the trees as had been spared from the forest primeval, which still 
covered much of the space now occupied by the Upper Town 
itself. A portion of the Ursuline Convent is the only old monas- 
tic building remaining substantially unchanged, for its last ordeal 
by fire occurred in 1686. The one-storied Hospital of the Grey 
Nuns, the Hotel Dieu, as it existed in 1700, was completely 
destroyed by an incendiary fire in 1755. The Recollet Church 
stood facing on the Place d'Armes. It had been built under pro- 
test from Bishop Laval, was battered almost to pieces by the bom- 
bardment of 1759, and was finally burnt in 1796. De Gaspe, in 




Medal struck in commemoration of Admiral 
Phipp's Defeat in 1792. 



THE IXTEXDAXT^S PALACE, 



499 



his Memoirs, gives a graphic account of his boyish recollection of 
the fire, which originated in Judge Plonk's stables on Louis Street. 
The wind was high and the sparks endangered the Ursuline Con- 
vent. The monks were so busy helping the nuns that they neg- 
lected to protect their own property. Fire caught in the roof of 
their church. In face of the clearest evidence to the contrary, 
De Gaspe says, it was firmly believed by many that the British 
Government had set fire to the monastery in order to confiscate 
the land on which it stood. 

The ground covered by the St. Louis suburb was in the coun- 
try. The Meadows (La A'acherie), under the Cliff, reached by 
the Cote d'Abraham, were the common pasturage of the town folk, 
but they were gradually invaded by houses and converted into the 
suburb of St. Roch before the close of the next half century. The 
other road from the town to the St. Charles Valley still bears the 
name which was originally conferred upon it — Palace Hill, as it 
led down to the Intendant's Palace. The situation of this, the Par- 
liam.ent House of Xew France and the Residence of the Intendant, 
was probably determined by the convenience it offered of landing 
stores from the water; for the Intendant, besides being President 
of the Council, was the fiscal agent of the Colony, and the public 
warehouses and workshops, as well as the Treasury, were under 
his control. The buildings erected by Intendant de ^leulles in 1684 
were, according to La Potherie, 480 feet in length. They stood in 
about ten acres of ground, laid out as gardens, on the river front. 
The first palace fell a prey to fire in January, 1713, when Intendant 
Begon and his wife with difficulty escaped the flames which over- 
took the rest of his household. It was relniilt, but an evil fate 
seemed to pursue it. The government stores which were accom- 
modated in buildings adjacent to the Palace were used by 'the last 
Intendant Bigot to rob the Government, and fill his pockets, at 
the sacrifice of the Colony. The whole group of buildings was 
battered into a ruin by the guns of the Palace Gate Battery, when 
Arnold's troop, which had occupied it as a barracks, were dis- 
lodged in 1775 ; and what remained was almost obliterated by the 
great fire of 1845. The original palace grounds had been reserved 
by the Imperial Government as a wood-yard, and the fuel, catch- 



500 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

ing fire, continued to burn for weeks. Strange to say, all the 
masonry that remains of the historic structure must be sought 
for in Boswell's Brewery, on the site where Intendant Talon 
erected the first Canadian brewery, converted for a time into a 
meeting place for the Sovereign Council, while the palace designed 
by the Intendant de Meulles was building. 

The most conspicuous as well as the most interesting building 
was the Chateau of St. Louis, separated from the Recollet Church 
by the Place d'Armes; for the citadel which to-day crowns Cape 
Diamond was not yet built, that prominent point being defended 
merely by an inconspicuous redoubt. The traveller's eye must 
then have turned irresistibly, as the thought of the historical 
student now does, to the Chateau and the Fort of St. Louis. 

The Chateau of St. Louis, which overhung the Cliff at the close 
of the century, covered probably the site of the little wooden fort 
built by Champlain in 1620.* But the fort was hardly built 
before he recognized the need of a stronger and larger forti- 
fication, within which the whole population could take refuge 
in case of attack. He therefore built in 1624 a fort of greater size 
in a more extensive and better defended enclosure, using the ma- 
terial of the existing stockade and blockhouse. "Still," as he said, 
"he could build only of fascines, earth and wood, of which, never- 
theless, he could make a good job, awaiting the day when more 
substantial structures of stone and mortar would be created." That 
day came when, in 1647, de Montmagny commenced a resi- 
dence, a stone guard house, and a barracks. A memorial of his 
work remains to this day in a keystone, on which is chiselled a 
cross of the Order of St. John of Malta, of which he was a Com- 
mander, and the date, 1647. The stone was dug up in 1784, and 
now, after many vicissitudes, it is built into the outer wall of the 
Hotel Frontenac. Montmagny was succeeded by Governor 
d'Aillebout, who completed his predecessor's plans; and subse- 
quently seven Governors lived and transacted the state affairs 

*Some contend that the first fort was on the site of the old Bishop's 
Palace, as being more accessible. To it, in 1623, they claim he cut a road up 
the steep mountainside, following the present Mountain Street, which then 
was a mere forest trail, just cleared sufficiently to permit his dragging to 
his stockade some small culverins from his ships. 



CHATEAU ST. LOUIS. 1698. 



Elevation of the Chateau as rebuiU by Frontenac and De CalHeres. 




Chateau as destroyed by fire in 18o4. 
From Hawkins' Picture of Quebec. 



THE CHATEAU RE-BUILT. 



of all New France in this Chateau of St. Louis — no longer the 
Fort of St. Louis. 

It was an unimposing one-storied stone building with a steep 
roof, built on a stone foundation, part of which still supports the 
northeast end of the Terrace. Its situation and the view from 
the river windows filled Frontenac with admiration ; but the build- 
ing itself was a most undignified abode for the Governor of a great 
colony ; moreover its successive occupants, always hoping for 
something better, had allowed it to fall into a sad condition of dis- 
repair, so that when the Count and his household occupied it, he 
found it to be hardly habitable. In 168 1 he implored the home 
authorities to lay out *'a little money in rebuilding at least the 
defences," for "the walls had tumbled down, there were no gates, 
and even the guard house was a heap of rubbish." Yet nothing 
was done till Frontenac returned to Canada for his second term. 

Two incompetent men filled the interval between his two 
administrations ; but one of them, the Marquis Denonville, had at 
least the courage to build, without authority from Versailles, a 
powder magazine just outside the yard of the Chateau. The 
powder had hitherto been stored in the Chateau itself. This small 
magazine, with its stone partitions and its conical stone roof, was 
afterwards enclosed by Frontenac within the walls of the Fort. It 
was subsequently built into the new Chateau, commenced by Gov- 
ernor Haldimand in 1783 ; was used by the Provincial Registrar 
for the storing of documents, and ultimately degraded into a 
kitchen for the Normal School, which was lodged in the Haldi- 
mand Chateau prior to the sale of that building a dozen years or 
so ago to the Frontenac Hotel Company. * 

When Frontenac was sent back by the King in 1689, as the 
only man capable of copinc;- with the Indian situation, he found 
the old Chateau even in worse plight than when he left it. A year 
or two later he felt himself entitled to adopt a resolute tone 
and insist on its reconstruction, for he had not only frightened the 
savages into submission, but had driven Phipps and liis New Eng- 

* For very full and interesting details see Ernest Gagnon's I.e Fort ct 
le Chateau Saint Louis. 



502 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY, 



land fleet out of the St. Lawrence, and saved Canada to France 
for another sixty-nine years. 

It was three years after this heroic defence that the Court of 
Versailles was shamed into allowing the valiant old noble to build 
a new fort and a new Chateau, and only after, in a despatch dated 
September 15, 1692, he had said : "I shall be exceedingly fortunate 
if I am not buried under its ruins before the repairs are under- 
taken, as a high wind may at any time blow it down about my 
ears." He had transmitted plans of the fort and the city fortifica- 
tions which he wished to build, and had also sent back to France 
the Sieur de Villebon, the engineer who had been commissioned to 
aid him, that he might lay his scheme before the great Vauban, and 
receive his suggestions. At last 12,000 francs were appropriated 
to the building of the Chateau, and this at a time when Louis XIV. 
was squandering the resources of France on the Palace and Park of 
Versailles. The great monarch would not live in the sumptuous Pal- 
ace of St. Germain, with its glorious outlook over the Paris Basin, 
because he could not enjoy the view without seeing St. Denis and 
being reminded that, sooner or later, the Abbey there must be his 
last resting place. Though the Count did not live to see his plan? 
completed, part of the new chateau was occupied by him, and he 
on the 28th of November, 1698, ended his active life in it at 
the age of seventy-eight. The Chateau was finished two years 
after Frontenac's death. It was then that La Potherie saw it, as 
a two-storied building of 150 feet, opening on a terrace, which 
overlooked the Lower Town and the Basin. The line of the eleva- 
tion towards the river was broken by two shallow wings, and three 
pavilions projected from the front on to the palace yard. No 
money was wasted on architectural decoration, for the original 
appropriation had been insufficient to roof it in ; and M. de Cal- 
lieres, Frontenac's successor, forwarded by the fall ship in 1699 a 
petition, begging most urgently for an additional sum of 6,000 
francs wherewith to complete the structure. 

A wing was built in 1723, and in 1808, the Chateau, Vv^hich had 
again fallen into a state of dilapidation, was renovated and 
enlarged, at the expense of the Province of Lower Canada, 
and a third story was added. It then again became the resi- 



FORTIFICATIONS. 



dence of the British Governor-General, and so remained till de- 
stroyed by fire one cold January day in 1834. 

According to Le Clercq, whom Charlevoix closely follows, the 
fortifications at the time of Phipps' attack consisted of a double 
line of palisades, starting under the clifif at the spot known as the 
Sault au ^latelot, where a battery of three guns was mounted. 
Thence it stretched along the beach of the St. Charles to the Palais. 
From the Palais the palisades ascended the abrupt precipice, and 
encircled the Upper Town to the base of Cape Diamond. The 
Sault au Matelot Battery was reinforced during the siege. Sev- 
eral batteries were mounted along the clifif overlooking the St. 
Lawrence, and one was posted near Denis' Mill on Mount Carmel. 
The small range and lack of precision of the guns of that day ren- 
dered it necessary to be as near the enemy as possible, as is evi- 
denced by the planting of two batteries on wharves extending into 
the river to defend the landing at the Cul de Sac. These batteries 
consisted of three eighteen-pound guns each. There were no 
gates to the town, but the roads leading to it were obstructed by 
barricades of wood and sandbags. Mountain Hill, wdiich was 
deemed the most vulnerable point, was protected by three such 
lines of defence. During the progress of the siege, when it was 
evident that a landing would not be attempted on the river front, 
a battery of three guns was erected at the gate leading from the 
St. Charles, probably near the present Palace Gate. 

Doughty claims that Frontenac in 1692 built a wall which was 
continuous, following the summit of the clifif from the Chateau 
to Palace Hill. He further describes, from a copy of Frontenac's 
plans in his possession, a wall starting from the present Chateau 
Frontenac Hotel, running westward between Mont Carmel and 
St. Louis Streets, across Haldimand Hill and thence curving west 
into St. Louis Street on reaching the corner of St. l^rsule Street ; 
thence running northwestward inside the line of St. I Tsule Street, 
and tending more ancl more in a northerly direction, through the 
intersection of Stc. Anne and St. Angcle Streets, to the lower 
end nf St. Stanislas Street, and terminating at Palace Hill. The 
plan on the opposite pacre sliows a ineillc enceinte, which corre- 
sponds somewhat to these lines on the west of the city, but does 



504 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

not show any fortifications to the north of the Chateau, or south 
or west of the Battery of the Chateau. Frontenac's fortifica- 
tions of 1692-1693, though said to have been of stone, were 
rapidly built,, and were probably not very enduring. 

Frontenac made plans, and plenty of them, for extensive forti- 
fications, but most of them remained on paper, though, according 
to Doughty, some were actually built. The permission to recon- 
struct the fort of St. Louis was cancelled in 1693 ; but fortunately 
the order arrived too late; Frontenac explaining that, having 
received news of further designs on Canada by the English, he had 
pressed the work with all speed, in accordance with previous per- 
mission, and had almost completed it when the order to ex- 
pend nothing further on defenses was received. The govern- 
ment of France was galvanized, by fear, into taking more active 
measures of defense after Admiral Walker's abortive attempt to 
take Quebec in 1713. It was, nevertheless, only after the con- 
quest of Canada, and not till 1823, that Quebec became, at the 
instigation of Wellington, the Gibraltar of America. 

The earthworks or walls, laid down on the map of 1756, which 
we have reproduced, as ancient fortifications, evidently en- 
croached on the present city limits, leaving the present Esplanade 
outside the walls, and intersecting the property of the Ursu- 
line nuns. We are not surprised, therefore, to find that they 
sent a humble but firm protest to the Minister, M. de Pontchar- 
train, setting forth that the engineers had cut right through their 
yard and garden; that four acres of forest trees had been cut 
down; that four more acres were stripped to the very rock 
to supply earth for the fortifications ; that, in addition, their 
pasture land was absorbed, their barn and stable demolished, and 
two houses, which yielded a rental of 16 francs each, destroyed. 
They complained that, to replace the property thus confiscated, 
they had been obliged to pay for land alone 1,200 francs, and 
yet they had received in compensation only 1,500 francs. 

To reduce the cost of the fortifications the work was done by 
forced labor, to the great contentment of the King, but to the great 
dissatisfaction of the inhabitants. The construction of fortifications 
was in the hands of the military, and in 1706, M. de Louvigny, the 




Kecollct Churcli and 'r()\ver> of [cMiit Cliim li and ( atlicdral, taken Iroiii llic IMacc d'Ar 
l\fj)r()ducfd from Siiiart"s drawing, 17')'.'. 



THE OFFICIAL CLASS. 



commandant, reports that the corvee was fixed at five days' labor 
for a man and horse. Men without horses had to work ten 
days, if they supported themselves, or fifteen if they received 
rations. The religious communities were required to contribute 
their share of labor ; and when the Recollets, on the plea of pov- 
erty, refused, the Commandant took the ground that, as they had 
been endowed with valuable property, as they sold beer, sailed two 
ships, and let out a horse for hire, they should also bear their 
share of the public burden. When every one was making money 
for himself, and civil servants and military officers had all turned 
traders, friars and Jesuits may be judged leniently if they helped 
out the revenues of their orders by a little buying and selling; 
which it would seem they did, if we may judge by the charges 
of illicit trading freely bandied about at home and hurled at 
one another across the sea. The only body of men whose hands 
were so clean that suspicion never touched them were the priests 
of the Seminary and the parochial clergy. 

The garrison of Quebec, as we have seen, was small ; but the 
city, though meagrely supplied with troops, was abundantly pro- 
vided with civil officials. If Canada did not prosper, it was not for 
lack of bureaucratic organization in France and the colony. The 
colonial office in France became in course of time a veritable re- 
pository of accurate statistics, and a council for the discussion 
of colonial topics ; but this was somewhat later than the date of our 
narrative. The Sovereign Council of Canada, with its seven mem- 
bers and its official staff, was the governing body, as well as the 
highest court of justice. It heard complaints even of the most triv- 
ial kind, made laws, registered the King's edicts, tried cases in ap- 
peal, and in general fulfilled functions very similar to those of the 
Parliament of Paris. The Council had on its creation appointed 
local judges who were enjoined to dispense justice without too 
much technicality {myis chicane) or lengthy procedure, but these 
were abolished in 1677, and replaced by an inferior court for the 
trial of civil and criminal case?, that of the Prcvdtc royale, presided 
over by the Lieutenant-Gencral. The crown business was con- 
ducted by a Procureur du Roi and a Grand Prcvot — Provost 
Marshal. A recorder, two notaries and two bailiffs were attached 



506 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

to the court, and the Grand Prevot had two deputies and an archer 
or constable.* After 1677 the Marechaussee, or Marshalsea Court 
for tracing and punishing vagabonds, was estabHshed. Six 
mounted police were its active officers. The Admiralty Court was 
not opened until 1717. Judges were but poorly paid, receiving 
only 400 livres salary, but they were relieved from the cost of 
wearing gowns and caps. 

In addition to these legislators, there was a Grand Maitre des 
Eaux et Forcts — the Master of Streams and Forests ; an Intend- 
ant of Commerce and Marine, a Commissary of Marine, a Keeper 
of the Royal Treasury, a Comptroller of the Beaver Trade, the 
King's Clerk, a Commissioner General of Provisions, a Surveyor- 
General and other officials. As all of them were poorly paid, not 
a few considered themselves justified in supplementing their in- 
come by such means, fair or foul, as might offer. 

Of all the officers sent out from France the Intendant had the 
best opportunity of enriching himself, though few — be it said to 
their credit — took advantage of their position. The first Intend- 
ant, Talon, has already been described as a man of unimpeachable 
honesty and of great administrative ability, who apprehended more 
clearly than any other nominee of the Government at Versailles 
the real needs of the colony. The man who last filled the office, 
Bigot, was a scoundrel and libertine in private life, and a robber 
of the state and people. Of the intervening occupants of the office, 

*The position of a notary in Canada has always been, and is to-day, 
very different from that of the holder of a notarial commission in the 
United States. He is a member of a distinct learned profession, like the 
Writer to the Signet in Scotland. He draws deeds, marriage contracts, 
wills, and thus performs many of the offices of an attorney. He is 
the guardian of the original deeds which he draws, which must never 
pass out of his keeping, and which after his death are deposited in the 
Registrar's office, becoming thus official documents accessible to the public 
in all future time. The first notarial deed is said to have been drawn in 
Canada on August nth, 1647, by Laurent Baurman, Long prior to that, 
however, Champlain had created the office of Greffier, or register, and 
appointed to it a certain Nicolas. The profession has always been numer- 
ous. In the census of 1681, besides the two official notaries attached to the 
court, five others seem to have found employment in the town, or one to 
something less than 300 inhabitants. 



WESTERN EXPLORATION AND TRADE. 507 

Jacques Duchesneau, Frontenac's enemy, fulfilled most efficiently 
one of the functions for which it was created, that of a spy and 
check on the Governor. The office in France was created by Riche- 
lieu, and the incumbent was to be the supervisor of internal taxes 
and of public works ; but under Colbert he was endowed with, 
or at least came to assume control over, judicial and eccle- 
siastical affairs as well. The expansion of the Intendant's power 
in Old France was reflected in the'greater importance and influ- 
ence which these officers arrogated to themselves in New France, 
where they finally eclipsed the Governor himself. But while the 
Intendants were entrusted with high administrative functions, and 
were in some cases men of marked ability and framers of the most 
important measures passed by the Sovereign Council, it was none 
the less their duty to draw up ordinances for the most trifling 
regulations of city and country life. 

As every ship had to be provided with a doctor, the medical 
profession was always well represented in the city. The city 
was supplied with an abundance of tradesmen. There seems 
to have been even a superfluity in some branches. There were, 
for example, no less than ten carpenters. Horses, however, 
were so few that there was no need of a saddler. Apparently the 
French housewives did not bake at home, as there were three 
bakers and two pastry cooks to three butchers ; and poor as the 
citizens were, they would not wear home-made clothes, for there 
were nine tailors in the town. Priests and nuns were numerous, 
but all were more or less usefully employed. 

The stirring events of the closing years of the seventeenth 
century, from the beginning of Frontenac's first administration to 
the end of his second, must have filled Quebec with exuberant 
excitement. Of the great men who have left their footprints over 
half the continent, a certain number were of European birth, but 
most of those who went forth, inspired by the newly awakened 
spirit of exploration which a dawning realization of the vastness 
of the new world had stimulated, were natives of the colony. It 
was to the progress of western exploration that Quebec owed in 
larcre measure its growth in commercial importance. Though the 
furs were not sold by the Indians or the coureurs de hois in Quebec 



508 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

it was the seat of exchange, and the headquarters of all the princi- 
pal mercantile houses. The policy of the Iroquois, to deflect the 
trade in peltries from the northern route via the Ottav^a to the 
Hudson through their own territory, must therefore have been 
a matter of anxious interest to the merchants of Quebec ; and nat- 
urally Courcelle's plan to intercept the furs of the Lakes at a 
fort built at the discharge of Lake Ontario would meet with their 
hearty approval. But when the scheme took shape under Fron- 
tenac, and an arrangement was made by him with La Salle, by 
which the latter was to enjoy certain exclusive trading privileges 
on condition of his rebuilding the fort and manning it, suspicion, 
bred of jealousy, was aroused in the mercantile community ; and, 
in La Salle's absence, the fort was seized on behalf of his cred- 
itors. Finally Frontenac's successor, Denonville, failing to 
appreciate the strong strategical position which the fort occupied 
from a mercantile, as well as a military point of view, dismantled 
and abandoned it. 

Poor La Salle! One can hardly follow his career without 
comparing it with that of more modern adventurers of the same 
type. Just as events in their relative importance cannot be prop- 
erly gauged by contemporaries, so the character and achievements 
of men can be adequately appraised only when their life-histories 
have been told, and the totality of their work and influence comes 
distinctly into view. La Salle was to his contemporaries a more 
or less unscrupulous trader and political schemer. To subsequent 
generations he stands forth conspicuously among the great makers 
of America, as Rhodes will probably do among the builders of 
Africa. Each made great mistakes, each had great faults, but 
their mistakes and their defects of character become obscured in 
the blaze of great deeds accomplished, and the still greater 
achievement which the example of high purpose, masterf-ully ful- 
filled, stirs a later generation to attempt and consummate. 

The country folk, or habitants, were poor. Few houses had 
glass windows, the substitute being paper. Every habitant had 
his little flower and kitchen garden, in which onions occupied a 
large space. Though the potato was in use in New England, it 
was still held in contempt both in Canada and in Old France. The 



ECONOMIC CONDITIONS. 509 

Canadian farmer was not then allowed to raise his own tobacco, 
lest he should interfere with the interests of France's West Indian 
Islands. This restriction was not removed till the administration 
of Intendant Hocquart. The country farmer at that period was 
so dependent on France for many of the staples of life that, when 
the ship ''Seine/' in 1704, with Bishop Saint Vallier on board, was 
captured by the English, the colony, while it could cheerfully 
resign itself to the detention of its Bishop, was almost driven to 
despair and famine by the loss of the ship's cargo. The laws 
against colonial manufacturing and colonial trade were only then 
being sufficiently relaxed to make it legal for the farmer to 
adopt that primitive mode of life, of which vestiges are still visible 
in the more remote parishes, where each family raises its own 
food, grows its own flax, weaves its own linen, shears its own 
sheep, converts the wool on domestic looms into coarse cloth, 
and in general provides for all its necessities without drawing 
on the outer world. Flax had been recently introduced, for it 
appears in 1707, in the Edict on Tithes, as one of the articles 
of cultivation from which the Church derived revenue. Dogs 
were more commonly used as draught animals than at present. 
They were harnessed to the sledges of the rich and to the sleighs 
of the poor, for horses were still rare. The few horses in use 
by the farmers were, like the horses in the Northwest to-day, 
so inured to cold that they were turned out in winter to provide 
for themselves until the snow became too deep ; and when more 
than one horse was harnessed to a sleigh, they were driven 
tandem, as is still the case, owing to the narrowness of the 
snow roads ; while oxen were bound to their loads, as they still 
are in some places, by the horns instead of by a yoke. 

The conservatism of the Canadian is certainly one of his saving 
virtues. It is strikingly revealed in the persistence of trifling 
customs through two centuries. For instance, the habitants arriv- 
ing overnight in the old days with their small stock of farm 
produce, camped on the river bank along the Cul de Sac, where 
they would light fires for culinary or other purposes, until the 
practice was forbidden by an ordinance of the Council, on the 
ground that it endangered the safety of the Lower Town. Till re- 



5IO QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

cently, the small farmer from the distant parishes on the south 
shore never entered an inn, but slept by the roadside, and so timed 
his journey that he came during the last night within easy reach of 
the early market. To protect the city from fire, a chimney tax was 
imposed in 1707, and the size of chimneys was regulated. The 
tax was expended in providing leather buckets, which were to be 
always kept full of water, and were distributed, 24 at the Chateau, 
20 at the Intendant's palace, 25 at the Jesuit College, 20 at the 
house of Frangois Hazeur, the finest private house in town, on the 
Place Royale, facing the harbor and in view of the Church of 
Notre Dame de la Victoire, and lastly 20 at Aubert's house in the 
Rue Sault au Matelot, then the most populous street in Quebec. 

The tax, it would seem, left a balance, which was expended on 
the repair of the stairway leading from the Lower to the Upper 
Town, and providing it with a gate wide enough only for foot 
passengers, thus shutting out beasts of burden, which had hereto- 
fore used this short cut to the detriment of the steps. A 
regular ferry between the city and Point Levis was not estab- 
lished until 1722, when a ten years' contract was given to Sieur 
Lanouillier for boats propelled by some kind of mechanism, un 
moidin de bateau. The old-fashioned horse-boats in which the pad- 
dle-wheels were turned by horses, by means of a rude mechan- 
ical contrivance, were used as ferry boats for nearly half a century 
after steam was employed as a motive power upon the river. 

In the city the luxury of good living was freely indulged in. 
Kalm somewhat later tells of the excellent dinners of many 
courses that he enjoyed at the Jesuit College and the Ursuline 
Nunnery, washed down with an abundance of good claret. The 
appetite before breakfast was whetted by a glass of brandy, but 
light wines were the beverage most indulged in by men who 
could aflford them: the women confined themselves to choco- 
late and coffee. Beer was the beverage of the poor, and one of 
Talon's enterprises, as we have seen, was a brewery in Quebec. 
The tables of the rich were well served, silver forks and spoons 
being laid beside each plate; but every diner was supposed to 
provide his own knife, a survival of the early habits of the hunter. 
The bonnet — rouge in Quebec and bleu in Montreal— was the 



PRICES REGULATED BY LAW. 



habitant's distinguishing article of dress, and still hold^ its 
place in Canada, while in France it has been relegated to the 
top of the liberty pole. Men servants were plentiful, but women 
servants so scarce that even wealthy housewives had often to 
do their own work. 

Pierre Boucher, who was sent to France in 1662 to plead for 
reforms, wrote a little book for intending emigrants containing 
more correct information than we are apt to find in modern docu- 
ments of the same kind ; for while he admits that ''good people 
may live in Canada very contentedly," he warns *'bad people not to 
go, because they are too closely looked after." He gave the world 
the first information of petroleum when he tells of a ''spring in the 
Iroquois country from which exudes a greasy water that is like oil, 
and that is u^ed in many cases instead of oil." He gives the 
price of light wines at ten sous a quart, brandy and Spanish 
wines at thirty sous a quart, wheat at 100 sous a bushel of sixty 
pounds, though he says it sometimes rose to 120 sous. Wages in 
winter were twenty sous with food ; in summer thirty sous with 
food. Clothes, he says, were about twice the price of the same 
article in France, and money so much dearer that fifteen sous in 
France would go as far as twenty sous in Canada. 

But prices rose and fell even in a community where they were 
regulated by ordinances, for the records of the Council show 
that it could not always enforce its own tariff. On one plea and 
another merchants, charged with the offence of selling their goods 
at higher than tariff prices, escaped with light fines. Twenty- 
two livres was an insignificant penalty to impose on Jacques de 
la Mothe for selling his claret at too livres the harriquc'^, when 
the tariff price was 60 livres : and his tobacco at 60 sous, when the 
tariff price was 40 sous. There were even corners in wheat, for 
in 1668 it was so scarce that 190 bushels brought down from 
Three Rivers were held at seven livres, or francs, the bushel, till 
the Jesuits, who had a stock on hand, broke the market by selling 
theirs at five francs. 



"The barriquc varied in the different provinces of France from 200 to 
250 quarts. 



512 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

Lahontan in 1685 puts the price of a barrique of Bordeaux 
at from 40 to 60 livres, and brandy at 80 to 100 livres; but a 
glass of wine, sold over the bar, cost six sous of French money, 
and a drink of brandy 20 sous. Sugar cost from 20 to 30 sous 
a pound.* 

The Sovereign Council not only regulated prices of merchan- 
dise and of beaver skins, but filled the functions of a municipal 
assembly. There are ordinances which laid down rules for the 
tavern-keeper, such as forbidding wine to be sold with meals 
except by permission; others prescribed the exact width of 
streets, such as that which requires Ste. Genevieve Street to be 
eighteen feet clear from fence to fence; others forbade fire- 
wood from being piled in the streets, or in vacant lots between the 
houses; and prohibited the use of shingles as a roofing material 
except on dormer windows. Tin soon became the favorite cover- 
ing, as tin plate was then really tin plate, being coated with as 
much as five per cent, of the unoxydizable metal, and as wood 
smoke did not attack it the old roofs remained bright as silver till 
the second half of the last century, when coal came into partial 
use as domestic fuel. 

The cost of living was high, if luxuries were indulged in; 
but money was rapidly made in trade by certain favored 
classes, and Quebec, being the center of trade, as well as of 
ecclesiastical and civil power, received its share of profits from 
many sources ; while Montreal, being nearer the sources of wealth 

*The copper currency of Canada consisted of deniers, worth i/i2th of a 
sou ; double deniers, worth i/6th of a sou, and the Sou, worth i/20th of 
a livre, or a franc. The ecru was worth 3 livres. A piece of money known 
as the quart d'ecu, or 15 sous, or sols, was in circulation. 

The sou differed in value, as did the livre of Paris and of Tours, but 
the cheaper sou was raised to the value of the standard by being stamped 
with fleur de Us, when it was known in Canada, and referred to in the 
ordinances as pieces tapees. 

If, as Boucher says, 20 sous in France were worth only 15 sous in 
Canada, money was at a premium of 33 per cent, instead of 25 per cent, 
as he states; but he probably meant that a 15 sou piece would buy in France 
as much as 20 sous in Canada. See interesting Note on Currency of 
Canada in Chapais' "Jean Talon," Page 214. 



SCANT INTELLECTUAL LIBERTY. 



— the fur-bearing regions of the Ottawa and the Lakes — was not 
left to starve. 

There was no printing press in Canada to disseminate truth 
and falsehood, to preach morality, and to distribute scandal. The 
administration discouraged pubhcity and freedom of discussion, 
and the Church was at one with the State on that question ; for 
though in 1665 the Jesuits had discussed the advisability of im- 
porting a printing press, it was in order to print exclusively les 
langnes, presumably either Greek and Latin classics or books in 
the native languages. 

This absence of the printing press coupled with a close censor- 
ship over imported literature, and the prohibition of all inter- 
course with the English Puritans, assisted the government and the 
Church in excluding heresy. Nevertheless a few heretics did 
find admission, some as soldiers, but more as clerks. Laval in 
1670 memorializes Colbert strongly on the subject, pointing out 
that French merchants, those of the true faith, entrust their 
interests in the colony to dangerous heretics, who insidiously 
diffused their influence, and by their behavior, which was often 
unexceptionable, weakened the popular prejudice against their 
persons and professions. Lest these theological reasons should 
not carry sufficient weight, he drew the Minister's attention 
to the danger of revolution to which the presence of a large 
body of Protestants in the colony would expose the State. 

If any heretics remained in the colony it was not for lack of 
warning from France, for the King in a letter to Denonville in 
1685 congratulated himself on the number of conversions that 
had been made in France through the cogent arguments brought 
to bear after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes ; and urged 
his Lieutenant to use soldiers and severity, as well as the assis- 
tance of the P)ishop, in persuading the few heretics in the 
colony to abandon their pernicious opinions. In the same dis- 
patch he recommends the encouragement of the wool industry and 
tanning. The King as an administrator could pass from the affairs 
of this world to those of the next, as easily as, in private life, 
he could exchange the counsels of his confessors for the charms 
and endearments of his mistresses. Fortunatelv there were so 



514 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

few Huguenots in Canada on whom to billet his troops that the 
King, however willing he might be, could not repeat the horrors 
of the dragonnades. Canada's history, therefore, has not been 
blotted, nor the character of the inhabitants debased, by such 
horrors as were committed in France in the name of religion 
by an arbitrary monarch, under the inspiration of a bigoted woman 
and a vindictive hierarchy. Canada suffered commercially 
and poHtically from the exclusion of the Huguenots, but her peo- 
ple and clergy did not receive into their veins the venom of 
that uncharitableness which is the bitter fruit of religious dis- 
sension. There was thus a homogeneity in the population, its 
habits and its institutions, which should have made the colony 
powerful and able to resist a foreign foe, if only it had been ade- 
quately supported by the mother country, or else freely allowed to 
work out its own salvation. But while no assistance was extended 
to it from France, it was forbidden to help itself ; and the inevita- 
ble happened. Nevertheless New France is still New France, and 
her relations to the neglectful parent are well expressed by Th. 
Bentzon in ''Notes de Voyage." "Canada/' so says the author, 
"reminds me of a widow, who after a passionate, amorous 
marriage, finds in a second matrimonial experiment the safety, 
peace and material advantage which result from alliance with 
a man of means and sober habits. Her heart, nevertheless, 
remains in the keeping of her first love, who, despite his faults, 
worshipped instead of merely respecting and supporting her. She 
would not, it is true, exchange her present comfortable estate 
for those joyous days of youthful madness, still she sighs when 
she thinks of them, and even takes pleasure in bemoaning her 
past sufferings." 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



The Struggle for the Fur Trade of Hudson Bay; the 
Quebec Hudson Bay Companies, and a Discussion 
on Colonial Policy. 

Two names appear conspicuously in the annals of trade and 
exploration in the latter half of the seventeenth century. Aledard 
de Chouart, Sieur de Grosseilliers, and Pierre d'Esprit, the Sieur 
Radisson, were more closely united by kindred tastes than even 
by family ties; and so highly were they esteemed for their 
energ}' and knowledge that, even after being suspected of 
treason, they were received back into favor by the Canadian 
authorities. Grosseilliers was married to Radisson's sister, 
but both were attracted to the Indians and their free, un- 
trammeled life, and both had in a great measure thrown 
off, together with their prejudices, those sentiments of patriotism 
and honor, the absence of which leaves human nature poor in- 
deed. Their intercourse wath the Indians of the Upper Lakes had 
instructed them more or less accurately as to the geography of the 
land lying between the Lakes and the Mississippi, and between 
the Lakes and the Hudson Bay. If the early voyagers and mis- 
sionaries learned so little of the more remote regions of the conti- 
nent, it was owing to native suspicion and secretiveness, for the 
knowledge of the Indians is as wide as their wanderings, and 
their power of observation as strong as their memory. Where they 
could have given minute descriptions, they only dropped vague 
hints. Whether Grosseilliers and Radisson had actually reached 
Tames Bay from the Height of Land which divides the Lakes 
from that sheet of water, or whether they derived the information 
from the Indians who hunted there, they certainly ascertained that 
a rich field for traffic in furs existed in the country to the 
north, which tlic Englisli claimed by riglit of discovery, but 
which they had not actually occupied. It is believed that they 



5l6 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

proposed to the agent in Quebec of the old company, which was 
then moribund and about to receive its coup de grace, that the 
company should equip an expedition by water to retrieve its for- 
tunes in this inexhaustible and productive region ; but all the 
thanks they got was a fine for trading without a license. In 
disgust they carried their knowledge and enthusiasm first to 
Boston, where, through Grosseilliers' persuasion, Capt. Zachary 
Gillam became interested in the fur trade, and was induced to sail 
his ship to Hudson Bay. This attempt failed. After further 
disappointments in the American colonies the Huguenot adven- 
turers so inspired the English commissioners, then in New Eng- 
land, with their own enthusiasm, that these officials urged them 
to accompany them to London. There, under the patronage of 
Prince Rupert, and with the pecuniary aid of the Prince, and other 
titled and untitled notables, two ships were fitted out and sailed 
in 1668 for the Bay. Only one, the "Nonesuch,'^ owned by the 
same Capt. Zachary Gillam who had made the unsuccessful at- 
tempt to enter the Bay in 1664, reached the appointed destination. 
Its crew wintered at the mouth of Prince Rupert River, near the 
head of James Bay, and not over 150 miles from the nearest 
French settlements; built Fort Charles, and brought back their 
ship with so rich a cargo of furs that the foundation of the Hud- 
son Bay Company, under a most liberal charter from Charles II. » 
was the result. Prince Rupert, Radisson's and Grosselliers' patron, 
was the first Governor, and gave his name to one-half the North 
American continent, which till our own day was known as Prince 
Rupert's Land. 

Rumors of this invasion by the English of a territory which 
the French claimed as their own, by virtue of its having been in- 
cluded in the sweeping concession given by Richelieu to the Com- 
pany of the One Hundred Associates, having peached the Intend- 
ant, Talon, he comjnitte^ to the Jesuit missionaries the task of 
watching the English. These he could, without reserve, rely upon 
to aid in frustrating the schemes of the heretics. To this com- 
mission we owe one of the most interesting narratives of the 
Relations— i\\2ii describing Father AlbaneFs journey to Hudson 
Bay. Starting from Tadousac in August, 1671, with two French 



ENGLISH TRADING IN HUDSON BAY. 



and Indian guides, he passed the winter on Lake St. John. As 
soon as Spring unlocked the icebound rivers he proceeded, ac- 
companied only by Indians, on his journey by way of Lake Mis- 
tassini to Hudson Bay, which he reached in the end of May, con- 
vincing himself of the presence of the English by seeing two of 
their deserted huts, and also a boat flying the English flag. 

As usual, the Jesuit acted as a political agent, and at a great 
pow-wow held on the Height of Land urged the Indians to stop 
trading with the English in the north, using as an argument that 
they did not pray to God.* He begged them to turn their steps back 
to Lake St. John, where they would always find a black-robed 
priest ready to teach and to baptize them. Although Father 
Albanel claimed that he always found the savages very easily 
moved by descriptions of hell's horror and heaven's delight, he 
admits that the argument which appealed most forcibly to his sav- 
age hearers was the relief from Iroquois raids which they owed to 
the assistance of the French ; for even in that distant region the 
Iroquois had spread terror. Dreary mementoes of the incursions 
of these exterminating savages were met with almost to the very 
shores of Hudson Bay; but since the campaigns of Tracy and 
Courcelle the range of their predatory operations had been cur- 
tailed. 

Father Albanel's report confirmed the rumor of the presence 
of the English, and it was clearly seen that, if they were allowed 
to gain a footing on the Hudson Bay, Canada would be threatened 
from both north and south. Nevertheless the Hudson Bay Com- 
pany was allowed for ten years longer to build and maintain trad- 
ing posts — Fort Rupert, on the southeast end of James Bay ; !Moose 
Fort, on Hayes Island, at the mouth of Moose River; Fort 
Albany, on the Albany River, and a fort at the discharge of the 
Nelson River. The Coutpagnic des Indes, which had replaced 
the Company of the Hundred Associates, looked on apathetically, 
while this trading company was making its position good, 

* Unparliamentary compliments were then paid with less reserve than at pres- 
ent. Charles II. took for the Crown an interest in the stock of the Hudson Bay 
Company. On presenting a dividend of 225 guineas on /"300 of stock to William 
the Third, the directors apologized for its not being larger by explaining that they 
" have been the greatest sufferers of any company from those common enemies 
of all mankind, the French." 



5l8 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

and preparing to defend itself, not only against French 
attack, but also against New England poaching and illicit 
trade. When at last France moved, it was at the in- 
stigation of an opposition trading company — the Compagnie du 
Nord, in which, as we have already said, Quebec was deeply 
interested. Colbert had urged Duchesneau in 1678 to take meas- 
ures to oust the English from the Bay, but nothing was really 
done, except sending Joliet to report on their operations at Fort 
Albany. He brought back the same report of the successful 
trade in which they were engaged. It was not till 1681 that Gros- 
seillier and Radisson, having obtained pardon for their treachery, 
were employed by the Compagnie du Nord to command two 
barks, the ''St. Pierre" and the "St. Anne," commissioned to that 
region. At first they did not venture to attack the strongest Eng- 
lish forts, but seized the post of St. Therese, near which Fort 
Nelson was subsequently built. What then happened is not very 
clear. According to one account they found young Gillam, the son 
of Captain Zachary, and Governor Bridgar in charge of the post, 
and carried them captive in the Hudson Bay Company's own ship 
to Canada. The other account is, that on their way back to Can- 
ada they fell in with a Boston ship, the ''Gargon," a trespasser on 
the Hudson Bay fur preserves, which they took to Quebec. 
Whether it was the Company's ship or a poacher, La Barre, the 
Governor, for reasons that are not very clear, but to the great 
disgust of its captors and of the colonial stockholders of the 
French Company, released it and its owner, Benjamin Gillam. 
This was not the only unsatisfactory experience of the Compagnie 
du Nord with officials. The two ships returned laden with 
peltries, but the agent of the Farmer of the Revenue ("Societe de 
la Ferme du Canada"), Mons. Chalon, interfered to prevent the 
Company transferring its furs at Isle Perce to another ship 
for transportation and sale in Holland and Spain. De la Ches- 
naye, who was the principal merchant of Quebec, and his partners 
of the Compagnie du Nord, protested. Though the Intendant, de 
Meulles, did not decide the question, he did order the ships to dis- 
charge their cargoes in the roadstead of Quebec. De la Ches- 
naye proposed a compromise, but the question was not settled 



THE COMPAGXIE DU NORD. 



until the following year. Nor did this end the friction between 
the Compagnie dii Xord and the Farmer of the Revenue. The 
feud existed at least until 1685 ; for though the Governor and In- 
tendant both agreed that Hudson Bay was beyond the jurisdic- 
tion of the Farmer of the Revenue, the Farmer's agent claimed 
that the Hudson Bay traders were diverting peltries from the 
Montreal market, where tolls could be levied on them, to ports be- 
yond their supervision, thereby depriving them of their dues. 

More stirring events were then transpiring, and a Thirty 
Years' War for the possession of the Hudson Bay had begun. It 
would seem that the partners had separated : Radisson had sold 
himself to the English; his brother-in-law remained true to Can- 
ada ; for Radisson in the ship "Happy Return" had surprised, in 
1684, his nephew, Jean Baptiste Grosseilliers, then in the employ 
of the Compagnie dii Nord, at a post near the mouth of Hayes 
River. Besides capturing his relative, he impounded 300,000 
francs' worth of furs. The loss of the peltries was seriously felt by 
the Compagnie du Nord. The subscribers and directors in Canada 
of what is called "The Hudson Bay Company, established in Can- 
ada," held a meeting in Quebec on October 31st, 1684. After 
expressing their regret that they did not send an agent in 1683, 
to plead for the King's assistance in their efforts to destroy the 
English trade in the bay and conquer the lands around Fort 
Nelson, they resolved to send le Sieur de Conporte and le Sieur 
Pierre Soumande to France, to secure the King's permission to 
despatch a canoe force overland to suprise the English and frus- 
trate the schemes of the faithless Radisson. The allowance made 
to the Sieur Conporte to cover expenses was to be 1,200 livres, but 
if he was obliged to spend more, he was authorized to do so. 
The Sieur Soumande, who was evidently going to France on his 
own business, was allowed his expenses from La Rochelle to Paris 
and his expenses while detained in Paris. The mission was suc- 
cessful, for the Company received their patent of incorporation in 
May, 1685, and they made reprisals on the other Hudson Bay 
Company with a vengeance. 

Governor Ea Rarre was about to retire, and one of liis last 
act? was to authorize Juchercau Joliet, the brother of Louis, to 



520 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



take official possession of the River Nemiskan as a challenge to 
the Hudson Bay Company. Radisson, guarding the English in- 
terests on the Bay, forbade the French to traffic with the Indians. 
The response was the Chevaher de Troyes' winter expedition by 
way of the Ottawa to Hudson Bay. This brilliant exploit was 
the forerunner of many others, in which the heroism of Iberville 
and other Canadian leaders stands forth conspicuously. 

The Canadian Company was reorganized repeatedly, and there 
was perpetual confusion as to its title. It was called indifferently 
by various names. In the original document quoted above it is 
called the ''Compagnie de la baye d'Hudson, etahlie en Canada." 
In another original document in my possession, dated 1697, the 
King, in a communication to the shareholders, addresses them as 
adventurers of the "Compagnie du Canada." They reply as 
shareholders in the ''Compagnie du Nord" Dr. William Doug- 
las, in his ''Summary, Historical and Political, of the First Plant- 
ing of the British Settlements in North America," published in 
Boston, 1760, summarizes the tedious war in the following brief 
paragraph : 

*Tn the summer, anno 1686, in time of peace, the French from 
Canada became masters of all our Hudson's Bay factories, Port 
Nelson excepted. Anno 1693 the English recovered their fac- 
tories, but the French got possession of them again soon after. 
Anno 1696 two English men-of-war retook them. In Queen Anne's 
war the French from Canada were again masters of these fac- 
tories; but by the peace of Utrecht, anno 1713, the French quit- 
claimed them to the English so far south as 49 D. N. lat. Hitherto 
we have not heard of any attempt made upon them by the Can- 
adians in this French war, which commenced in the Spring 1744." 

And thus Hudson Bay remained ultimately in the possession of 
the British ; but while the struggle for its trade was in progress, 
the control of the Hudson Bay Company was a perpetual subject 
of dispute between the French and the Canadian shareholders. 
The Rochellois in 1693 contended that they held a majority of the 
stock, and that the trade should be conducted direct with La 
Rochelle, and not through Quebec, where the merchants made 60 
per cent profit on supplies, and where the Farmers of the State 



THE BEAVER TRADE. 52 1 

levied heavy taxes. Quebec nevertheless continued to make its 
gains. The Company cannot then have been very prosperous, for 
it was unable either to share the expenses of Iberville's expedition 
in 1696, or profit by his capture of Fort Bourbon. Its influence, as 
well as its financial status, must have continued to decline, as we 
find that in 1697 it was obliged to refuse to incur expenses in de- 
fending Fort Bourbon, and in 1700 its exclusive privileges were 
revoked and bestowed upon the inhabitants of Quebec. The 
Compagnie de Castor, or de la Colonie du Canada, was then 
founded. The Compagnie du Canada was a more popular and 
purely Quebec company than its predecessor.* Its constitution 
was framed by Canadians. Every trader in Canada was obliged 
to take an interest in it; and, to secure a market for its furs 
the Farmer of the King's Revenue, Alons. Oudiette, was com- 
pelled to buy and sell in France all the peltries the Company might 
oflfer. Poor Oudiette had paid 350,000 livres for the privilege of 
being ruined, and the Company soon found that the Farmer of 
the Revenue could not pay for what he bought, unless there was a 
market for the wares. The Company, therefore, speedily follow- 
ed Oudiette into bankruptcy. But a certain enterprising pro- 
moter, a Mons. Aubert, reorganized it. His panacea for securing 
a market for the Company's goods and preventing private trade 
was to impose a heavy penalty on any trader w^ho should retain a 
beaver skin in his possession for over forty-eight hours, and re- 
fuse to accept as cash the Company's promise to pay. 

Beaver skins were declared legal tender at 4 francs the pound ; 
the promises of the Company were, of course, never redeemed. 
Promises and beaver skins became plentiful, but money scarce. In 
the primitive days barter satisfied the requirements of private life, 

* In the appendix will be found a copy of the contract between the Com- 
pany and fifteen coureurs de bois whom it was employing for Fort Bourbon. They 
were to be paid three hundred francs a year, but besides their wages they were 
to have the right to use caribou skins out of which to make shirts, overcoats, 
trousers, mittens and moccasins for their own use while in the North; but they 
were not to traffic in furs on pain of forfeiting their wages. They were to give a 
year's notice before leaving the Company's service. If they died their wages were 
to be paid to the date of their death to their heirs. If taken prisoners, however, 
their wages were to be paid only to the date of their captivity, and no ransom was to 
be paid for their release. Three only of the fifteen were able to sign their 
own names. 



522 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



but when Canada engaged in foreign trade and international com- 
merce, currency and credit were required, and she possessed 
neither. This need of some currency, other than beaver and moose 
skins, had been felt before this date, for the Intendant Meulles 
as far back as 1685 reported to the Finance Minister that the idea 
had occurred to him of putting into forcible circulation notes of 
various denominations, made by cutting playing cards into quart- 
ers, and stamping each with the fleur-de-lis and a crown. The 
cards were signed by the Governor, the Intendant and the Clerk 
of the Treasury of Quebec. They were convertible into bills of 
exchange. The next move was to issue a card in France payable 
to the bearer on demand; and the example was followed by a 
colonial issue, to be confined to the colony. As all were received 
by the Treasurer in Quebec in payment for bills of exchange on 
the imperial treasury, so long as the bills were paid, the cards were 
popular and circulated as currency in domestic trade. But when 
the French treasury was emptied by the costly wars and ex- 
travagant expenditures of the Court of Louis XIV., and the treas- 
ury bills came back to the colony protested, card money was, of 
course, discredited, and fell rapidly below its face value. Never- 
theless, it continued to be issued, for, according to Parkman, in 
1714 there were 2,000,000 francs of card money in the hands of 
the 20,000 inhabitants of Canada, while 1,000,000 of good money 
was ample for the needs of trade.* 

Beaver skins continued to be the most valuable and profitable 
article of trade, but their value declined with their consumption. 
Fashion changed, and hats with lower crowns and smaller brims 
diminished the trade long before silk and rabbit fur actually 
displaced the beaver. Quebec exported in 1788 130,758 beaver 
skins and 200,358 bushels of wheat. But the trade in furs declined 
as the export of wheat increased. Mackenzie reported that in 1798 
only 106,000 skins entered the market, and that 13,364 of the best 

* As compensation for the refusal of civil rights and urgent restrictions of 
trade, the people had enjoyed the great advantage of freedom from direct taxation 
and the advantage of merely nominal duties on exports. Ten per cent was levied 
on wines and tobacco, and one-fourth of the beaver skins and one-tenth of the 
moose skins were collected as a direct tax on the mercantile classes. 



COLONIZATION COMPANIES, PAST AND PRESENT. 



of these found their way to the United States. The Hudson Bay 
Company's returns in 1891 account for only 460 beaver.* 

The beaver trade of France was disadvantageously affected by 
the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Many of the Huguenots, 
who were hat makers, carried their skill to other lands, especially 
England, which drew its supply of beaver skins partly from the 
Iroquois through the Hudson, and partly from Canadian traders, 
who smuggled their goods across the New York and New Eng- 
land frontiers. Lahontan tells in his own witty way how^ the 
trade was conducted in his time, and how !Mons. Perrot, the Gov- 
ernor, though receiving a salary of only 1,000 ecus a year, man- 
aged in a very few years, through an illicit use, presumably, of 
his official influence, to make a fortune of 60.000 ecus out of furs. 
As a consequence of restriction French trade was so heavily 
handicapped, as Charlevoix tells us, that after de Troves' suc- 
cessful raid on the English post in the Hudson Bay, the two 
governments of England and France agreed that Fort Nelson 
should be a neutral trading post — a scheme which Denonville 
very sensibly opposed, mainly on the ground that, as the English 
merchants always paid more for furs than the French, they would 
monopolize the trade, t 

Dismal as had been the failure of the colonization companies, 
France was not yet convinced of the futility of advancing coloni- 

* Wolley in his Two Years' Journal in New York, published in 1701, gives 
as the price of beaver skins los. 3d. a pound. 

t Alexander Henry, in his Travels and Adventures, says: " Under the French 
Government of Canada the fur trader of Canada was subjected to a variety of 
regulations, established and enforced by royal authority, and in 1765, the period 
at which I began to prosecute it anew, some remains of the ancient system were 
still preserved. No person could go into the countries lying northwest of Detroit 
unless furnished -with a license, and the exclusive trade of a particular district 
was capable of being enjoyed in virtue of a grant from military commanders. 
The exclusive trade of Lake Superior was given to myself by the commandant of 
Fort Michillimackinac, and to prosecute it I purchased goods which I found at 
his post at twelve months' credit. My stock was the freight of four canoes, and I 
took it at the price of 10,000 pounds weight of good and merchantable beaver. It 
is in beaver that accounts are kept at Michillimackinac, but in default of this 
article, other furs and skins are acceptable in payment, being first reduced into 
their value in beaver. Beaver was at this time at the price of 2 shillings 6 pence 
per pound, Michillimackinac currency; other skins at 6 shillings each; martin at i 
shilling 6 pence, and others in proportion. To carry the goods to my wintering 
place on Lake Superior I engaged twelve men at 250 livres of the same currency 
each, that is, 100 pounds weight of beaver skins. For provisions I purchased 50 
barrels of maize at 10 pounds of beaver per barrel." 



524 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

zation through the machinery of commercial monopolies. She tried 
it again with like ill success in the Mississippi Company of 1717. 

Strange to say, after a long period of vicissitudes, the 
system has been revived in our own day by all the great and some 
of the smaller powers of Europe, with consequences which bear, 
under widely different conditions, some resemblance to the com- 
plications which arose in New France. Not a few of the forays 
on the borders of New France and New England would no 
more have been conceived and carried out by consent of the cen- 
tral government, than the Jameson Raid would have been planned 
and committed by Great Britain, had the territory north of the 
Transvaal been a crown colony instead of a chartered one.* 

In comparing the policies pursued by the parent States, 
France and England, towards their respective colonies in North 
America, the virtue of greater consistency at least must be allow- 
ed to France. If France lost her colonies by the fortune of war, 
England lost her's in a manner less creditable to her statesmanship 
— by revolt. 

From first to last, in the creation and management of the Eng- 
lish colonies, the people took the initiative ; the home government 
did little else than introduce the element of confusion. Through- 
out the whole colonial period we can recognize suspicion between 
the mother country and her colonies, and the vacillating policy of 
the former. We see charters granted and repealed; proprietary 
titles conferred and then cancelled and recreated. On the part of 
the colonists there was selfish reluctance to co-operate for mutual 
defence and refusal to allow the mother country even to introduce 
unity into the military system. On the other hand, Parliament 
passed unjust navigation laws intended to benefit England's 
interests at the expense of her dependencies — laws which 
encouraged smuggling and piracy and every form of illicit 

* A commercial company may be an apt colonizer when the article of com- 
merce it exploits can only be produced by encouraging colonization; but in Canada 
furs were substantially the only article of export, and the wild animals yielding 
them had been exterminated in proportion as colonization had progressed. The 
development of Manitoba and the Great Northwest as an agricultural region was 
with reason retarded by the Hudson Bay and the Northwest Companies, as is 
proved by the rapidity with which the buffalo and fur-bearing animals of the Plains 
and of the Rocky Mountains have disappeared before the advance of agriculture 
and settlement. 



FRENCH AND ENGLISH COLONIAL SYSTEMS. 



trade in colonial ports, and provided no machinery for their own 
enforcement, or penalties for their violation. England's naviga- 
tion laws, in fact, operated rather as irritants than as measures of 
oppression to the colonies. At the base of England's colonial 
policy was the honest intention to form self-governing communi- 
ties, which would carry with them across the seas English laws 
and customs, as opposed to Spanish officialism and French abso- 
lutism.* As time advanced and complications multiplied, the ne- 
cessity became apparent of some organic tie which would cause the 
units to coalesce for mutual defence against the foreign foe, and 
harmonize internal interests and differences. England thought 
that her Parliament, which had been the safeguard of English 
liberty, should be trusted by Englishmen everywhere to legislate 
on matters affecting the common good and common safety. The 
English Kings, with less reason, thought that as representing the 
nation, they might at times exert their authority in matters of 
colonial administration. But the colonists would submit neither 
to Parliament nor to King. Schemes of federation such 
as those proposed by Penn, and later by Franklin, met with the 
hearty approval neither of England nor of her dependencies. The 
danger was not great enough to induce the colonists to forget 
their hereditary jealousies, and abandon their selfish and narrow 
views ; and England looked askance at any scheme for a Colonial 
Parliament, lest sooner or later such a body should arrogate func- 
tions belonging to the Imperial Parliament alone. The opposi- 
tion at present against an Irish Parliament is doubtless inspired 
by a similar apprehension.! 

* The charter of the Hudson Bay Company describes the inhospitable lands 
ceded to that company in free and common socage as one of the Plantations or 
Colonies in America. 

t Pownall, in his Colonial Administration, while recognizing the good cause 
for growing discontent among the American colonists, and advocating a vague 
scheme of imperial federation, warns Great Britain against the danger of further- 
ing any movement looking towards consolidation of the colonies themselves; 
while now the first step towards imperial safety is recognized to be the con- 
solidation of the various colonial groups as a step towards their incorporation into 
an imperial federation, whose constitution shall unite the divergent fiscal and 
economical interests of the different parts of the British Empire, and solve the 
ever recurring problem of how to impose an imperial tax for imperial purposes, 
without violating the principle that the taxpayer alone can tax himself. This is 
a principle, strange to say, departed from only in the Territories of the United 
States, where delegates may sit in the Federal Legislature, but not vote, and 
where American citizens may not cast a vote for President. 



526 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



French statesmen must have seen, in the Enghsh haphazard 
colonial policy, and in the jealousy prevailing in her colonial fam- 
ily and their suspicion of the parent State, the only safety of their 
North American dependencies. For a United Britain would, 
with the aid of the Iroquois, or even without their aid, have ren- 
dered the valley of the St. Lawrence untenable by France. But 
if the same statesmen flattered themselves that a merely consistent 
policy necessarily gave strength to the system to which it was 
applied, events were soon to arise of a nature to disabuse them. 

One respect in which the French colonial system differed es- 
sentially from the English was in giving the Church almost co- 
ordinate powers with the State. The position assigned to the 
Superior of the Jesuits in the preliminary council of 1647, 
the Bishop or his coadjutor, in the Supreme Council of 1663 ; the 
charter granted to a professedly religious community like that of 
Ville Marie, carrying the right of nominating its own governor; 
and the permission accorded to a religious body like the Sulpi- 
cians, to exercise seignorial control, with haute, moyenne and 
basse justice, over what shortly became the most im- 
portant defensive position, from a military point of view, on the 
St. Lawrence, are anomalies such as cannot be laid at the door 
of English policy. Had the English government attempted to 
force a system of this nature on English colonists, the attempt 
would not have succeeded. Had the French system been^obnox- 
ious to the majority of the French colonists, and opposed to their 
national habits of thought, it would have been resisted. There 
was no resistance ; and, as a consequence, a colonial system of dual 
government by Church and State was called into existence, with 
far-reaching results. 

Looking backward, we can appreciate better than could his 
contemporaries the full scope at once of Frontenac's genius and of 
his colonial policy. His plan of throwing out a chain of posts 
between the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi, of which Cataraqui 
was to be the first link, was admirable. The adventurous temper 
of many of the colonists who had emigrated to Canada was a 
splendid qualification for men who were to defend a girdle 
of forts, make each a center of settlement, and thus win a 
wilderness to civilization and a continent to France. The mother 



CHARTERED COMPANIES OF RECENT DATE. 



country could well have followed the example of England, and 
spared many of her more turbulent children to create a New 
France across the sea. Early in the i8th century France 
was beginning to seethe with the discontent which was to cul- 
minate in the Revolution. Had her rulers looked across the chan- 
nel, and duly estimated the quantity of dangerous explosive ma- 
terial in England for which America was affording an outlet, they 
would have encouraged emigration, rather than discouraged it by 
refusing, as they did, political liberty and freedom of thought and 
of creed to the colonists. A slight relaxation of political and eccle- 
siastical thraldom would have induced much larger numbers of the 
more restless and energetic of the French population to migrate 
than actually found their way to the St. Lawrence. Once free, 
and inspired by the atmosphere of the American forest, prairie, 
lake and river, they would have become an irresistible horde of 
cotireurs de hois, who would have peopled the whole West while 
the English were slowly preparing to consolidate themselves into 
a political confederation east of the Alleghenies. As it was, 
Frontenac's plans not only failed, but they weakened the de- 
fensive power of the colony by scattering instead of concentrating 
its feeble forces. A copious stream of immigration was necessary 
to their consummation, and that Canada never enjoyed under the 
French regime. 

When we consider the complete failure, from the point of view 
of colonization, of the chartered companies of the seventeenth cen- 
tury, we may well feel surprised at the revival by England of this 
method of national expansion in the latter half of the nineteenth. 
All the chartered companies of to-day are, however, understood 
to be merely forerunners of Government, and speedily resign their 
charters for a pecuniary consideration, after giving the powers 
creating them a title to the district exploited. The British 
North Borneo Company, founded in 1881, gave place to a 
protectorate in 1888. The Royal Niger Company of 1886 sold its 
rights and territory to the British Government for ^865,000. The 
Imperial British East Africa Company, created in 1885, disposed 
of its possessions to the British Government in 1894 for £250.000. 
Cecil Rhodes' famous British South Africa Company is still in 



528 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

existence, but its powers as a governing body have been very 
much crippled since the Jameson raid and the war against Loben- 
gula. The German East Africa Company resigned its governing 
functions in 1890, and the German New Guinea Company fol- 
lowed its example in 1899. The British African Commercial Com- 
panies alone have undoubtedly added to the Empire about 2,000,- 
000 square miles of territory, whose value is by some belittled, 
even as the worth of Canada was depreciated by the statesmien of 
France, as it also was by those of England when they resigned 
Kirke's conquest without a murmur. The charters of the modem 
companies differ in many material respects from those of the 
seventeenth century, but they resemble strangely, in their essential 
features, those of France in the seventeenth century, in so far as 
they are endowed with political functions while organized as 
money-making corporations. 



APPENDIX. 



1. 

pROCES Verbal of a Conference Held in Quebec on October 
31, 1684, AT WHICH Certain Delegates were Appointed 
TO Lay before the King the Needs of the Compagnie 
de la Baye d'Hudson, Establie en Canada, and Ask his 
Assistance against the English who have Established 
a Post at Two Hundred Leagues from Fort Nelson. 
Nous Soubz signes Dirrecteurs et Intereses En la Compagnie 
de la baye D'hudson Establie En Canada Ce soubz le bon plai- 
sir de Sa ^lajeste et de lagrement de Nos Seigneurs le General, 
et Intendant Estans Assembles En la Maison de Monsieur De 
Comporte Tun des dits Interessez, pour Conferer sur les Ex- 
pediens que Nous Jugerions les plus Convenables et plus Ad- 
vantageux pour faire reussir Enterprise desia Commancee pour 
la d. baye D'hudson, et comme il a Este remarque par la d. 
Compagnie que faute Davoir Envoye en france Lannee der- 
niere quelque personne dicelle Capables et Intelligente pour 
supplier Sa Ma j este de vouloir L'honorer de Sa protection pour 
la d. Enterprize Contre les Efforts des Anglois qui la menacent 
de ly traverser et Nuyre autant quils pourront au succeds quelle 
pretend y faire par son Commerce et obtenir de Sa d. Majeste 
La grace d'avoir en propriete les terres de la d. bay Dhudson 
au port Nelson en telle quantite Et droits quelle Jugera, et, 
d'autant que les dits Interesses assembles apres une I^Iure de- 
liberation ont Juge a propos ayant Eu La permission de Nos 
dits Seigneurs Le General et Intendant denvoyer deux per- 
sonnes de la d® Compagnie cette annee en france pour obtenir 
de Sa Majeste sy faire se pent la propriete du d. port de Nelson 
en la d. baye d'hudson, et quil soit permis aux dits Interesses 
d'y Envoycr les Navires ou barques quils Jugeront pour faire 
valloir leur d. Commerce et Mcsure a Cause des grands risqucs 
quil y a d'y Envoyer par i\Icr soir par les glaces soit par les 
difficultes qui se Rencontrent pour y arriver que pour les an- 

529 



530 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

glois qui soubz pretexte d'un Establissement quils y ont des- 
puis quelque annees a deux cents Lieux de celluy de la d. Com- 
pagnie, pretendent nous en deffandre L'acceds et Nous Menas- 
sent duzer Contre Nous, les Navires ou barques, et Contre les 
gens qui les Monteront touttes sortes dactes d'hostilite affin 
de la suplanter du d. Poste dhudson et la Contraindre de ny 
plus revenir par les perthes quils luy cauzeront et Ce quelle a 
lieu de Craindre particullierement Cette annee par la Mauvaise 
Volonte du Sieur Ratisson qui sest alie Contre lengagement 
quil avoit avec Elle, avec les dits anglois pour la Ruiner et des- 
truire, pour quoy les d. deux personnes qui seront Choisis par 
elle pour aller En france y representeront quil seroit Neces- 
saire davoir la liberte D'envoyer Un Certain Nombre de Canots 
et Canoteurs avec des Vivres et Merchandizes pour se Randre 
en La d. Baye Dhudson par les Rivieres qui y Communiquent 
et Conduize dans la profondeur des terres pour sy Randre 
En seurete et pour En avoir les advis quil Conviendra pour 
soustenir le d. Establissem* et au Cas que les dits anglois Eus- 
sent Commancee de faire rupture de la paix qui est Entre Nous 
et Eux quil soit permis a la d. Compagnie, d'avoir droit de re- 
prezailles En supliant sa d. Majeste de luy ayder et Maintenir 
La d. Compagnie, laquelle assemblee a Jette les yeux et fait 
choix de la personne du d. Sieur de Comporte, et de Celle du Sieur 
Pierre Soumande de lorme Interesses, et les a pries de vouloir 
agreer Le Choix quelle a fait deux pour passer en france et y Re- 
presenter toutes Choses pour le bien et advantage de la d. Compa- 
gnie outre ce qui est dit cy dessus et le tout Sous le bon plaisir de Sa 
Majeste et aprobation de Nos dits Seigneurs le General et Inten- 
dant, Ce que les dits Sieurs de Comporte et de lorme ont ac- 
cepte volontiers dans le dessein de lobliger et luy procurer 
par leurs soings leur Capacite et Credit tout ce quelle pent 
attendre d'eux, et pour Lentreprize et reussite du d. Voyage 
La d. Compagnie a Resolu de fournir au d. Sieur de 
Comporte La somme de douze Cents Livres argent de france 
pour subvenir aux fraix et despance du d. voyage et au Cas 
quil Juge a propos de faire quelque depance quelle ne Peut pre- 
voir elle luy Donne pouvoir de faire les Emprunts dont II aura 



QUEBEC IX THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



besoing se refferant pour Cet Effait a sa prudance et probite, 
et de plus promet payer La despance que le d. Sieur Saumonde 
(de lorme) fera pour se randre de la Rochelle a Paris, et sejour 
au d. Lieu, dont et de ce que dessus Les dits Interesses ont 
Convenu, et donneront aux dits Sieurs une procuration Con- 
formement a la deliberation Cy dessus et tels memoires quils Ju- 
geront pour leur servir avec leur lumieres et Experience 
dinstruction, fait A Quebec Le 31® octob. 1684: 

Et apres que les dits Interesses ont requis le Sieur Gitton 
fils qui a assiste a la desliberation De lassemblee de la signer il 
En a fait refus et a desclare quil Nestoit point de la d^ Societte 
Le Sieur Chanjon luy ayant fait Entrer Contre Son Consente- 
ment, pour quo\', la d. Compagnie a deslibere de ne plus Re- 
garder Le d. Sieur gitton Comme associe dont sera dresse acte 
en forme au premier Tour avec protestation de tons depands 
dommages et Interets Contre le d. Sieur gitton, fait au d. quebec 
Les Jours et an susdits. 

De Comporte 

Charles Aubert de la Chenaye 

Pachot 

Chanjon 

Jean lepicart 

Le Ber 

Catignon 

P. Soumande Delorme 
f. hazcur 

Migcon DeBranssat 
Bouthier 

Aujourdhuy a la Requisition de Monsieur Maistre Philippe 
Gauthier Escuyer Sieur dc Comporte Consciller du Roy prevost 
de nos Seigneurs Les IMareshaux dc france En cc pays demeu- 
rant en son hostel En cette villc rue St Pierre, Des Sieurs Charles 
Aubert de la Chenaye, Jacques leber frangois Vienne Pachot. fran- 
gois hazcur Guillaumc Chanjon, Charles Catignon Jean Bai)tiste 
Migeon de P'ransart, Pierre Soumande De Lorme Guillaume Bou- 
thier Et Jean Le Picart ALirshands Et habitans dc ccttc WWc 



532 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

Et de Mont royal directeurs Et Interessez en la Compagnie de 
la baye dhudson en Canada pays de la nouvelle france, Nous 
Gilles Rageot Notaire Royal au d. Quebeq En la pn^® des tes- 
moins cy apres nommez nous sommes transportez, au domicile 
du Sieur Jean Gitton fils marshand y demeurant riie soubs le 
fort, sur le quay, ou estant parlant a sa personne luy avons mon- 
tre, Exibe Et faict lecture de la deliberaon cy devant, Ce faisant 
nous dit notaire avons somme Et Interpelle par ces pntes le d. 
Sr. Gitton de garnir Et fournir p'ntement ce quil doibt pour sa 
part Et portion au sol la livre, pour les frais quil a este trouve a 
propos de faire pour le bien proffit, utilite et conservation de la 
d. Compagnie faute de quoy, Quelle persiste allencontre de 
luy de tous despens dommages Et Interets, Et a le d. 
Sieur Gitton fait response q.^ est prest dexecuter Et suivre le 
traitte q.^ a fait avec la ditte Compagnie le trentiesme oc- 
tobre mil six cent quatre vingtrois, Et comme La ditte Com- 
pagnie na point suivy le dit traitte ayant fait des advances de 
plus de soixante mil livres audela du montant du d. traitte. Et 
y ayant receu plusieurs nouveaux Interessez, Le d. Sieur Gitton 
se desiste de la ditte Compagnie dans laquelle II ne veult avoir 
Interest, attendu que Le dit traitte quil a signe na este suivy, de- 
mandant aux Interessez de la ditte Compagnie le remboursement 
et advance q^ a dans la d. Compagnie, compris ce qui luy est 
deub des Sieurs De Saurel Et Bruno Interressez dans la d. Com- 
pagnie, a faulte de quoy, II a proteste de tous ses despens dom- 
mages Et Interests, fait Et passe au dit Quebecq En la Chambre 
du d. Sieur Gitton Le Neufiesme Jour de Novembre mil six cent 
quatre vingt quatre Espresence de Antoine Pacault et de Denis 
Roberge, tesmoins qui ont avec le d. Sieur Gitton et notaire signe. 
Dont acte Et dont du tout a este laisse Coppie au d. Gitton 

J: Gitton pour mon pere. 
Roberge 
Pascaud 
Rageot 



II. 



EXTILA.CT FROM THE LeTTER OF THE KlXG, DaTED 1 697, AdVISING 

THE Shareholders of the Compagnie du Nord that an 
Expedition is being Fitted out to Attack Fort Bour- 
bon^ AND Offering it when Taken, to the Company, 
under Certain Conditions: And the Reply of the Com- 
pany, Declining the Offer on Account of the Heavy 
Losses it has Sustained. 
Extraict de La Lettre du Roy de 1697. 

Elle a bien voulu faire encor La depence dun armement de 
cinq de ses vaisseaux pour aller attaquer et prendre sur les an- 
glois Le fort de Bourbon de La baye du Nord, afin de Leur oster 
Le Commerce du Castor, dont La pocession de ce fort, a cauze de 
la proximite des nations Superieures qui fournissent Le meilleur, 
Leur donne la preference a Lexclusion des frangois et au pre- 
judice de la Compagnie de Canada Etablie pour Le Commerce 
de cette baye, Laquelle Sa ^lajeste y veust bien retablir, et Luy 
faire remettre Le d. fort en Lestat quil se sera trouve avec Les 
armes et munitions en rembourgant Les depenses de Lentretien 
et de La Subsis'^^ de la garnison depuis La prise jusques au 
temps q'^ sen remetteront en possession, a quoy Les d^ Sieurs 
de frontenac et de Champigny tiendront Les Interressez en la 
d^Compagnie disposez et en retireront la declaration avec Leur 
Soumission quils enverront par Le retour des premiers Vais- 
seaux, afin quelle puisse estre asseuree quils y feront Les en- 
voys necess''^^ pour Lannee prochaine a la decharge de Sa Ma- 
jeste ou quelle y puisse pourvoir autrement sur Leur refus. 

Aujourdhny Treziesme Jour d'octobre mil six cent quatre 
vingt dix sept avant midy pardevant Le notaire Royal en la pre- 
voste de quebec soijs signe y residant et temoins cy Bas nom- 
mez Sont Comparus Monsieur DcVilleray premier Conscillcr 
au Conseil Souverain de Ce pays au nom et Comme fai- 
sant pour Messieurs Doudiettes Interressez En la Compagnie 
du Nord pour La Somme de soixante trcizc mil cent qua- 
tre vingt treize Livres dix sept Sols ; Maistre Pierre Dcbenac 

533 



534 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



Controlleur general des fermes du Roy en Ce pays faisant 
pour Le Sieur Demonic Interresse En la d. Compagnie pour 
La Somme de deux mil quatre cens dix neuf Livres ; Pour 
Le Sieur Marnot marchand de paris Interresse pour La Somme 
de Cinq mil Livres; et pour Le sieur frangois Duprat marchand 
de la Rochelle Interresse pour la Somme de quatre mil huit cens 
soixante douze livres dix huit sols; Monsieur Aubert De la 
Chenaye Conseiller au d. conseil souverain Interresse pour Luy 
pour La Somme de vingt deux mil deux cens vingt Six Livres 
unze sols ; et faisant Pour Monsieur Patu Interresse pour la 
Somme de Cinq mil quatre Cens Soixante unze Livres, Le Sieur 
frangois haseur marchand Bourgeois de Cette ville Interresse 
pour La Somme de dix sept mil Cinq Cens vingt une Livres ; Le 
Sieur frangois Pachot aussy marchand et Bourgeois de cette 
ditte ville Interresse pour luy pour la Somme de dix mil trois 
Cens Soixante treze Livres dix Sols six deniers Et faisant pour 
La Damoiselle Neuve et heritiers De Deffunt Maistre Jean Bap- 
tiste Migeon Sieur Debransat vivant advocat au parlement de- 
meurante a montreal Interresses pour La somme de Cinq mil 
quatre Cens Cinquante neuf Livres ; — Le Sieur Jea^t Le Picart 
aussy marchand de Cette ditte Ville Interresse pour la Somme 
de six mil quarante neuf Livres dix huit sols; Le Sieur Charles 
Macart aussy marchand de Cette ditte ville Interresse pour La 
Somme de Cinq mil trois cens trante neuf Livres ; Damoizelle 
Catherine Nolan Espouse et procuratrice du Sieur Mathieu De- 
lino aussy marchand de cette ditte ville absant Interresse pour 
La Somme de deux mil quatre cens soixante huit Livres dix 
sols ; Et Le Sieur Jean Gobin aussy marchand de cette ville In- 
terressee pour La Somme de dix sept cens quatre vingt Douze 
Livres ; 

Lesquels Dits Sieurs cy dessus denommes Esnoms quils agis- 
sent ont dit et desclare qu'ayant En Communication D'un article 
de la Depesche Envoyee par Sa Majeste a Monseigneur Le Conte 
de Frontenac Son gouverneur et Lieutenant general En Ce pays 
de Canada Et a Monseigneur De Champigny Intandant de Ce 
dit pays auxquels Sa Majeste a Bien voulleu ordonner de Com- 
muniquer Le d. article aux dits Sieurs Interressez En la Com- 



QUEBEC IX THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



535 



pagnie Du nord pour quils ayent a Deliberer Entr'eux sy ou non 
lis veuUent accepter Loffre que Sa Majeste a La Bonte de Leur 
faire de Leur Remettre Le Fort Bourbon De la Baye du Nord 
avec Les armes et munitions apres quil aura este Repris sur les 
anglois par Les Cinq vesseaux quelle a Envoye pour Cette Ex- 
pedition pour par Les dits Sieurs Interressez y Retablir Le Com- 
merce et Ly Continuer en Rambourgant a Sa Majeste Les De- 
pances De L'entretien et de la subsistance de la garnison Depuis 
la prise Du d. Fort Jusques au tems que les d. Sieurs Interres- 
sez en la d. Compagnie S'en Remetteront En possession; Et 
apres en avoir Delibere par assemblee faitte Entr'eux Le d. Sieur 
de \'illeray faisant pour Les d. Srs. Doudiettes, Le d. S"". Debe- 
nac faisant pour Les d. Srs. Demonic, Marnot, et Duprat, et Le 
dit Sieur delashenaye pour Le dit Sieur pattue Ont dit qu'a 
Leuregard lis ne peuvent repondre aux propositions que Sa Ma- 
jeste fait aux Interressez En La d. Compagnie quy sont habitues 
et Establis en Ce pays attendeu que Les dits Sieurs cy dessus 
Denommes sont Demeurans en france et quils n'ont aucun ordre 
de leur part pour y repondre; mais quils Leur Donneront advis 
de la d. proposition et off re de Sa Majeste pour quils ayent a 
y repondre ; Et a Legard Des dits Sieurs de la Chenaye en son 
nom hazeur, pachot tant pour luy en son nom que faisant pour 
la d. damoizelle Veuve et heritiers Migeon ; picart, macart, deli- 
no ; Et Gobin tous demeurans en ce d. pays lis ont d'une Com- 
mune voye Reconneu et advoiie quils ne sgauroient qu'avec 
Toute les humbles soumissions que de veritables sujets doivent 
a Leur Roy Remercier Sa Majeste De la Bonte et de la Charitte 
quelle a de voulloir procurer Les moyens de Retablir La d. Com- 
pagnie Du nord par les offres advantageux quelle Luy fait mais 
que les grosses advances pour Lesquelles chascun deux y est In- 
terresse sans aucune esperance de Les Retirer sy Sa Majeste 
n'a La Charitte de Continuer ses bontes pour La d. Compagnie 
Leur oste Les moyens de sepuiser pour faire de nouvelles ad- 
vances pour Le Retablisscment et maintien de la d. Compagnie 
Du nord surtout pandant que La guerre Durera Estant Imposible 
que la d. Compagnie puisse soutenir et faire Les Dcpance neces- 
saire pour garder Le d. fort bourbon par Elle mesme sans le 



536 QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

secours de Sa Majeste ; qu'ainsy sy Sa Majeste veust bien Con- 
tinuer ses Bontes a Legard de la d. Compagnie Elle aura La 
Charite de conserver et maintenir Ce poste pendant le terns De 
La Guerre et apres la guerre finie de Le Remettre Entre Les 
mains de la d. Compagnie quy dans Ce tems La fera toutes les 
ijouvelles advances possible pour Le maintenir et Garder ; ou que 
sy II se forme une nouvelle Compagnie en france qui veulle En- 
treprendre De Garder le dit poste et Le maintenir pendant que 
la Guerre Durera Les d. Srs. susnommes marchands de ce pays 
de Canada offrent de s'y Interresser pour une huitiesme partye 
sy Sa Majeste veust bien Leur accorder, Desquelles Declarations 
Les d. Sieurs susnommez Chacun a leur egard ont requis Le 
present acte qui a este fait pour Leur servir en Tems et Lieu ce 
que de raison fait au d. quebec Le jour et an susd. es presences 
des Sieurs guillaume Gaillard marshand et de frangois Aubert 
Commis Temoins demeurants au d. quebec qui ont avec Les d. 
Sieurs Susnommez et no^® signe; 

Rouer DeVilleray 

Charles Aubert de la chenaye 

Gobin 

f. hazeur 

Pachot 

Benac 

Catherine nolan 

Macart . 

Lepicart 

G. Gaillard 

Aubert 

Chambalon 



III. 



Contract between the Directors of the Compagnie de la 
CoLONiE and Fourteen Men, who Undertake to Serve 
the Company at Fort Bourbon. 

Pardevant Le notaire Royal en la prevoste de quebec sous 
signez Residant et temoins cy-bas nommez furent presens Jo- 
seph des hostels dit lapointe, antoine forestier, frangois Perthuis, 
Jean Baptiste Cuillerier, Jean cotton dit fleur despee, et Louis 
Viger, tous demeurans a ^lontreal ; frangois L'ancougne, Jean 
Sezart dit Gardelet, et Joseph favreau habitans de boucherville, 
noel lamy; claude duplex Philbert ]\Iazeau, et Jean Boisseau 
aussy habitans de contre-coeur, et Rene Cosset de batiscan, et 
Louis hot de charlesbourg, de present en cette ville de quebec, 
Lesquels de leur bon gre se sont volontairement Engagez a 
Messieurs Lec directeurs Generaux de la Compagnie de la Colo- 
nic de ce pays sous signez a ce presens et acceptans quy les ont 
pris et Retenu pour le Service de la d. Compagnie a Commencer 
de ce jour et Continuer Jusques a leur Retour en cette ville ou 
a leur arrivee en france a I'egard de ceux quy y voudront volon- 
tairement passer au lieu de s'en revenir en ce pays pour quitter 
le service de la d. Compagnie et non a I'egard de ceux quy pour- 
ront estre commendez pour passer en france pour le Service de 
la d. Compagnie, dont les Gages Coureront Egallement Comme 
a ceux quy Resteront au Xord jusques a leur arrivee en ce d. 
pays, Pour par eux s'embarquer Incessamment sur le navire de 
la d. Compagnie pour aller Servir Icelle au fort bourbon en la 
baye du nord soijs les ordres de la dite Compagnie et sous les 
Commendement de Monsieur delisle de tilly commendant au 
d. Lieu pour la d. Compagnie, et a ceux quy auront droit de Leur 
Commender sous luy et en son absance auxquels lis promettent 
d'obeir en tous les travaux sans exception d'aucuns quils Icurs 
commanderont pour le Service de la d. Compagnie, et de leur 
obeir avec toute la fidelite Requise. ccs engagements ainsy faits a 
la charge par La d. Compagnie de les Nourrir ; Et outre Ce de leur 
payerachacun d'eux Leurs gages ct Salaires a Raison de trois Cens 

537 



538 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



livres par au Monnoye de ce pays; a Condition qu'outre leurs 
dits Gages II leur sera permis a chacun d'employer des peau 
de Caribou provenant de leur chasse a se faire des chemizes, 
capots, Cullottes, Mitasses, et Souliers Sauvages pour leur Ser- 
vice pour durant tout le terns qu'ils seront au dit lieu du nord, 
Et qu'ils ne pourront faire aucun trafic, Commerce, Ny negoce 
pour leur proffit particulier directement Ny Indirectement a 
peine de pertes de leurs Gages ; quil sera permis a chacun deux 
de quitter le Service de la d. Compagnye pour s'en Revenir en 
ce pays en en avertissant le d: Sieur delisle ou ceux quy seront 
a Sa Place Un an auparavant quils s'en puissent Revenir pour 
que Le d: Sieur delisle ou autres Commendant en puisse don- 
ner avis a la direction pour que la direction ayt le tems d'y en 
Envoyer d'autres a la place de ceux quy s'en voudront Revenir 
I'annee suivante ; qu'a L'egard de ceux des dits engages quy des- 
cedderont soit pendant laler, leur sejour, ou retour Leurs Gages 
seront payes a leurs heritiers depuis le d. jour de leur depart 
jusques au jour de leur deceds; Et a legard de ceux quy se- 
ront pris prisonniers par les Ennemis de lestat leurs Gages leurs 
seront payez jusques au jour de leur prise seulement, sans que 
la Compagnie soit en aucune Maniere obligee n'y teniie de payer 
aucune rangon pour le rachapt et liberte de leur personnes, soiis 
aucuns pretextes que ce puisse estre, Car ainsy a este Regie, 
entre les dits Engagez susnommez et mes dits Sieurs les direc- 
teurs generaux, sous lobligation &c Renongant &c Fait Et 
passe au d' Quebec en lestude du d. notaire a legard; des dits 
Engages avant midy Et a l'egard de mes d' S'"^ les directeurs 
generaux en leur Bureau le Vingt Septiesme jour de juin Mil 
Sept cens quatre en presence des S'"^ frangois rageot et Pierre 
huguet praticiens temoins quy ont avec mes d. S'"^ les direc- 
teurs generaux, Les dits forestier, Perthuis, Cuillerier et Bois- 
seau et notaire signe; les autres susnommez ayant declare ne 
sgavoir signer de ce enquis 

Cuillerier 
F. perthuy 
Boisseaux 

R. L. Chartier de Lotbiniere 



QUEBEC IX THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



539 



Ruette Dauteiiil 

Delins 

Pinaut 

Rageot 

Perthuis 

P. huguet 

Chambalon 



IV. 



Canadian Census. 

The slow growth of the Colony is graphically expressed by 
the following summary of successive censuses taken from the 
Census of Canada, 1870-71 : 

1608 Quebec founded — 28 settlers wintered there, including 
Champlain. {Champlain, Edition Laverdiere, tome III, 
page 173.) 

1620 Population of Quebec: 60 persons. {Champlain, Edition 
Laverdiere, tome VI, page 8.) 

1628 Population of New France, 76, who wintered, including 

20 French and the Missionary returning from the 
Hurons. {Champlain, Edition Laverdiere, tome VI, 
pages 205 and 231.) 

1629 After the taking of Quebec, about 117 persons wintered, 

90 of these being English belonging to Kertk's Expedi- 
tion. {Champlain, Edition Laverdiere, tome VI, page 
320.) {Relations and Parish Registers of the time.) 
1 641 The sedentary population of New France was still only 
240. {D oilier, Edition 1868, page 31. Relation de 1642, 
page 36.) 

1653 Population of New France about 2,000. {Mere Marie de 
V Incarnation, — Lettres Historiques, XLVIIL) 

1663 Population of New France 2,500, of whom 800 were in 
Quebec. {Leclercq, Edition i6gi, vol. II, pages 4 
and 66.) {Boucher, Edition Canadienne, page 61.) 

1665 Population de jure of New France: 3,215. {''Census of 
Canada.") 

1667 Population of New France : 3,918. Census of Canada.'') 

1668 Population of New France: 6,282. {Archives de Paris.) 
1673 Population of New France: 6,705. {Archives de Paris.) 

1675 Population of New France: 7,832. {Archives de Paris.) 

1676 Population of New France: 8,415. {Archives de Paris.) 
1679 Population of New France : 9,400. Census of Canada.") 

540 



QUEBEC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 54I 

1680 Population of New France: 9,719; besides 960 Indians col- 

lected in villages. (Archives de Paris.) 

1681 Population of Xew France : 9,677. Census of Canada.") 
1683 Population of Xew France: 10,251. {Archives de Paris.) 
1685 Population of Xew France: 12,263; including 1,538 of the 

Indian population collected in villages. (''Census of 
Canada.") 



1686 Population of X^'ew France: 12,373. (Archives de Paris.) 



1688 


Population 
Canada.") 


of 


Xew 


France : 


11,562. 


C Census 


of 


1692 


Population 
Canada.") 


of 


X^ew 


France : 


12,431- 


C Census 


of 


1695 


Population 
Canada.") 


of 


X^ew 


France : 


13.639- 


Census 


of 


1698 


Population 


of 


X^ew 


France : 


15.355- 


(" Census 


of 



Canada") 



INDEX. 



Al)€naki8, Algonquin tribe, colonists contemplate alliance with, 188 ; supply col- 
onists with corn, 190 ; prosperity of, 192 ; guide English traveler, 210 ; in 
council, 283 ; accompany French envoys to Is'ew England, 311 ; solicit aid at 
Quebec, 329. 

Acadia, religious dissensions of colonists. 74-75 ; Champlain in, 70-77 ; advanatges 
of, to France, 81 ; trade monopoly of, granted to de Monts, 82 ; duties on goods 
from, 82-83 ; failure of de Monts' colony in, 83, lu6 ; peaceful relations of 
French and Indians, 90 ; De la Mothe in, 128 ; English dispute French right 
to, 13t> ; invasion of Argall, 159 ; Jesuits in, 171 ; conditions of treaty of St. 
Germain concerning, 221-222 ; rights of trade reserved, 2SU ; a menace to New 
England, 306 ; loss of, due to Cromwell, 306, 363 ; importance of. to Canada, 
383. 

Achmet I., Sultan of Turkey, treaty with France cited, 95. 
Admiralty Court established, 506. 

Africa, modem occupation of, compared to early contest for America, 7, 10; 

early French coast trade, 67. 
Agona, Indian chief, 38 ; welcomes Cartier, 42 ; crowns Cartier with wampum, 43 ; 

conspires, 45. 

Agriculture, aboriginal, at Quebec, 35, 40-41 ; French at Quebec, 44, 78, 86. 89, 
• 120-121, 126; neglected by colonists, 130, 163. 169; farm established, 177. 
178; checked by Iroquois, 276-277, 357; limitations of early farmers, 508- 
509; manner of bringing produce to market, 509-510. 
Aiguillon, Marie de CombaUet (nee Vignerod), Duchess d", sketch of, 257; land 
given to hospital by, 257, 265, 494 ; in Quebec topography, 332-333 ; death 
mentioned, 437. 

Aillehout, Mine. Barbe d' {n€e Boulogne), arrival at Quebec, 277; at Chateau St. 
Louis, 301, 400; at the Hotel Dieu, 464. 

Aillehout, Louis de. Governor of New France (1648-1651), deed drawn by, 242; 
arrives at Quebec, 277 ; deputy to France, 291 ; succeeds Montmagny. 293, 
298, 329 ; concessions secured by. 293-294 ; memorable incidents of adminis- 
tration. 299 ; disinterestedness of, 299 ; negotiates with New England, 305, 
310. 339, 340; succeeds Charles de Lauzon as Governor ad interim. 346. 347- 
348 ; settles claims of precedence, 353 ; death of, 356 ; lays corner-stone 
of Church of Ste. Anne de BeauprO, 421. 

Ajoaste, Indian tribe, village of, 34. 

Albanel, Charles, Jesuit, left at Montreal, 357 ; journey to Hudson's Bay, 516- 
517. 

Albany, N. Y., plans for reduction of, 362. 
Albigt uses, mentioned, 114. 

Alexander VI.. Tope, character of. 11 ; bull of demarcation. 14. OS. 
Alexander, Sir William, fits expedition against French, 211 note; complains of 
poachers, 215. 

Algonquinft, meeting place of, 51 ; home of, 54 ; origin of strife with Iroquois, 54- 
55, 59 note; drive out Iroquois, 55; alliance with Champlain, 57, 90-!)i, 93- 
94, 97; Champlain attempts to reconcile with Iroquois. 1(52; excite fears of 
colonist's, IKO; forego trade with English, 228-229; opposed to white men, 
232; defend Three Rivers, 249-2."'.o ; religious training of, 249-251, 277, 2S.S ; 
guide French to Huron tf)wn, 2.'»5 ; participate In Qu<'l)ec ceremonies, 255- 
256, 263; give captives to French, 283; seek French alliance against Iroquois 



544 



INDEX. 



and New England colonists. 287-288 ; value of alliance to Frencli, 296, 303 ; 
Druillettes with, 303 ; seek refuge at Quebec, 369 ; in Province of Quebec, 
370 notej fail de Courcelles, 433. 
AUard, Pierre Germain, Recollct, arrives at Quebec, 440. 

'* Alouette," ship, chartered by Jesuits, 174 ; dispatched against pirates, 177. 
Ambrose, Jesuit brother, brews beer, 321. 

America, analogy between early and present systems of occupation, 7 ; early dis- 
coveries and discoverers, 7-18; Asiatic theory, 9; Cartier's second voyage 
closes first cycle of discovery, 9 ; importance of discoveries ignored, 10 ; 
European politics controlling force of, 13, 18. 

Ancre, Concino Goncini, Baron de Lussigny, Mar6chal d', assassination of, 123. 

Anjou, annexed to France, 15. 

Ann street, site of Jesuit college. 475. 

Anne of Austria, 211, 332 ; indifferent to Canada, 276 ; confirms commercial con- 
cession, 280; favors Le Jeune, 413; supports Laval, 333, 417, 431, 435. 
Annedda, Indian remedy for scurvy, 36, 54, 89. See also Balsam. 
Arithoine, Dom, question as to priesthood of, 30. 
Anticosti, Island of, passed by Cartier, 22 ; Cartler near, 23. 
Appendix, pp. 529-539. 
Archer, GaMeh arrival at Jamestown, 157. 
Archives de Paris. See Paris. 

Argall, Samuel, raid on Acadia, 76, 77, 91, 128, 159, 187. 

Argenson, Pierre de Voyer, vicomte d', governor of Canada (1658-1661), recep- 
tion at Quebec, 348 ; campaign against Iroquois, 348-350, 357, 358 ; disputes 
Laval's claim to precedence, 353, 423-424, 426; administration, 358-359; 
sails for France, 360 ; ordered to support Laval, 419 ; opposes Laval on 
brandy question, 453. 

Armament, supplied by Louis XIII. for defense of Quebec, 151-152, 196-197. See 
also Artillery, Firearms. 

Arnold, Benedict, at Quebec, 499. 

Artillery, used at religious celebrations, 117, 249, 263, 317, 322, 324. Bee also 

Armament, Firearms. 
Artois, annexed to France, 15. 

Auhert, , reorganizes Compagnle du Canada, 521; trading policy of, 521. 

Auhertj Francois, witness. 536. 
Aul)ert, Thomas, explorations of. 19. 

Auteuil, Buette de, dismissed from council, 429 ; resists claims for tithes, 448 

note J director of the Compagnie de Colon ie, 538. 
Avangour, Pierre du Bois, Baron d', governor of Canada (1661-1663), succeeds 

D'Argenson, 358; first days in Quebec, 360; dispatch to Cond6. 361-362; 

replaced by de Mezy, 362 ; impeached by Laval, 372, 427 ; conflict with Laval 

on the brandy trafl3c, 427-428, 453 ; confirms confiscation of Quebec store of 

Montreal company, 493. 
Asores, Islands of, point of demarcation in papal bull, 14. 
B. O. M. (builders' old measure), 25 note. 
Bacon, Oilles, discovers mines, 324. 

Bate des Chaleurs, named by Cartier, 22 ; trade monopoly granted to de Monts, 
82. 

Baie St. Paul, effect of earthquake at, 366 ; ores of, 385. 
Baker, John, poacher, 216. 

Ballet, performed at wedding, 324 ; disapproved by Jesuits, 402. See also Theat- 
ricals. 

Balsam, Indian remedy for scurvy, 36-37 ; eflBcacy of, 46. See also Annedda. 
Balzac, Honori de, theory on English emigration, 382 note. 
Bance, Guillaume, house burned. 321. 



INDEX. 



545 



BaptisiuSj spectacular, 176; fails to cure, 182; fatality of, 250; administered to 

captives, 292. 331. 
Barrique (cask, hogshead), capacity of, 511 note. 

Barronie, a holding under feudal tenure. 80, 237. See also Feudal system. 
Basques, early voyages to fishing grounds, 10, 65 ; combine to preserve fisheries, 

65 ; forbidden to trade for furs, 77-78 ; poach on French reserves, 162. 
Batiscan, Indian chief, welcomes French, 96; asked to guide Champlain, 99-100. 
Batiscan River, described by Champlain. 72. 
Baurman, Laurent, executor of first national deed, 506 note. 
Baxter, Richard, Call to the Unconverted, translated for Indians, 307 note. 
Ban of St. Clair, trade monopoly of granted to De Monts, 82. 
Bayly, Leiris, Practise of Piety, translated for Indians, 307 note. 
Beam. France, church property restored, 123. 

Btauchasse, , clerk, warned of meditated massacre, 128; addresses Indiana, 

129. 

Beaudry, , Judge, discovers ordinance regulating tithes, 448, note. 

Beouhamais, , urges state aid for Jesuit college, 469-470. 

Beaulieu, Jacques Gourdean, Sieur de, murder of, 368. 

Beauport, first seigneur of, 180 {see also Seigneuries) ; Nigolet at, 252 ; Jesuit 
lands at. 323-324 ; Hurons to be established at, 330 ; religious services at, 
330. 413; census of 1661, 357 7Wte ; census of 1660, 379, 413. 

Beauport Flats, murders on, 126. 128, 180-181, 235; efforts to cultivate, 169; fate 
of murderers, 189-190 ; settlers on, 264 ; lands ceded to nuns, 318, 323, 324. 

Beaupre, Vicoynte de, in charge at Cap Rouge, 44. 

Beaupre, seigneurie de, 264, 483 (see also Seigneuries) ; census of 1661, 357 note; 
census of 1666, 379. 413 ; need of priests at, 413. 

Beaver skins, price advanced by trade restrictions, 69, 83; duties on, 82-83; price 
advanced by free trade, 97 ; price in France, 175 ; shipped to France, 169, 
175, 281, 316, 287. 324-325, 330 ; trading values, 180, 187, 216 ; soldiers al- 
lowed one coat of, 195; taken by Kirke, 195. 197. 213. 214 note. 215; price 
fixed by commercial grant, 208 ; seized from priest, 290, 326 ; a welcome con- 
signment, 30(J, .368; price fixed by Intendant, 383; value in brandy, 45S note; 
legal tender, 521, 523 note; decline in value, 522; value affected by revocation 
of Edict of Nantes. 523. See also Fur trade. 

Bicancourt, Sieur de. See Robineau. 

Becancourt, Que., Indian population of. 370 note. 

Bcecham, William. Iroquois Trail cited, 56. 

Biff on, Claude Michel, Sieur de la Picardi^re, escapes from fire, 499. 
Beira, Juan de, Jesuit, result of instructions to, 314 note. 

Belle Isle, Straits of, early kno\\Ti to navigators, 19, 20 ; Cartler's fleet In, 24, 42. 
Belmont, Francois Vachon dc, Sulpician. Hiftnirc dr la NauvcUe France cited, 
273; Histoivc de I'cau dc vie cn Canada, attributed to, 451. 

Benac, , member of Compagnie du Nord, 536. 

Bentivolio, Ouido, Papal nuncio, empowers Recollets, 143. 
Bentzon, Thomas, Notes de Voyage cited, 411 note; 514. 
Bemi('r(8, Gourdainc, Ursuline, 411. 

Berni^rcs, Henri de, grand vicar for Laval, 394. 412; arrives In Canada, 408; at 
Hermitage of Caen, 411-412; tenant of Mme. de la Peltrie, 420 note; claims 
seat In council, 437 ; at Recollet ceremony, 442 ; arrives at Quebec to conduct 
seminary, 4r)6. 

BemiirrH, Louviyny, Jean de. mairlage to Mme. de la Peltrle, 259, 411, 420 note; 

at Hermitage of Caen, 411-412; death, 420 note; Le Chretien Jnterieur placed 

on the Index, 412. 
Bersimis, Que, Indian population of. 370 note. 

Berthier, Alexandre, Slpur de, captain In Carignan regiment, arrives in Canada, 

278; nbjuv.Ttlon of. 404. 



546 



INDEX. 



Berzee, , Jesuit, result of instructions to, 314 note. 

Bcver^ Samuel Pierce, poacber, 216. 

Bigot, PranQois, Intendant of New France (1748-1760), cited, 291; character of, 

499, 506. 
Black rohes. See Jesuits. 
Blair, Jam.es, mentioned, 462. 

Blundell, Nicholas, deposition as to bestowal of Quebec colonists, 198. 

Boisseau, Jean, coureur de hois, text of contract, 536-538. 

Bonfires, lighting of, on St. John's day, 328. 

Bongoust, Etienne, millwright, 322. 

Bonin, Jacques, Jesuit, leaves Three Rivers, 300. 

Bonna^sieux , Pierre, La Grande Compagnie de Commerce cited, 66. 

Boswell's Brewery, sovereign council held at, 500. 

Boston, Mass., progress of, 265; Druillettes at, 306, 308; La Tour at, 306 and 
note, 306-307 ; passage of French troops considered, 308 ; fighting capacity, 
309 ; traders favor French alliance, 310 ; d'Avagour's plan for its reduction, 
362 ; Radisson and des Grossielliers at, 516. 

Boucher, Pierre, people's envoy to France, 363, 511 ; Historic veritable des moeurs 
et productions de la Nouvelle France cited, 511, 512 note, 539. 

Boucherville, Lahontan at, 401. 

Boulanque (Boulogne) . Philippine Gertrude de, enters convent, 301. 
Boulard, , claims for tithes, 448 note. 

BoulU, Eustache, sails for Canada (1618), 128; meets Champlain, 140; at Que- 
bec, 141 ; guards fort, 3 48; signs petition to the king, 153; sails for Canada 
(1626), 174; protests against war on Iroquois, 179; takes command of " Le 
Coquin," 190-191 ; captured by Kirke, 194, 195-196, 215 ; knowledge of Com- 
pany De Caen, 206. 

BoulU, Hilene. See Champlain. 

BoulU, Nicolas, aids De Monts and Champlain, 99. 

Bourion, Charles, Due de. See Soissons. 

Bourdon, Jean, qualifications of, 253 ; elected syndic, 291 ; brings horses to Can- 
ada, 380 ; appeals to king. 432 ; procurer-general, 433. 

Bourgeoys, Margaret, character of, 283 ; founds association of Les Filles de la 
Congregation, 411 note. 

Bourne, George, Pictures of Quebec, 497 note. 

Boutentrein, , house burned, 351. 

Bouthier, Guillaume, summons Gitton. 531-532. 

Boutonville, , represents Talon, 384. 

Boyer, , Sieur de, Rouen merchant, at Tadousac, 110; opposed to Champlain, 

124, 138. 

Bradford, William ("Jean Brentford"), Governor of Plymouth, entertains Druil- 
lettes, 307. 
Brandy. See Liquor traffic. 

Brazil, founded by Portugal, 14 ; Huguenot colonies, 68, 112 ; success of Francis- 
cans in, 170. 
Bread, cost of (1645), 316. 

Breheuf, Jean de, Jesuit, enters on Huron mission, 175-176, 177, 232-233 ; for- 
bidden to accompany Hurons, 229-230 ; at Three Rivers, 232 ; martyrdom. 
300. 

Bressani, Francesco Giuseppe, Jesuit, teaches, 282 ; accompanies Hurons. 300 ; 

brings news of Iroquois war, 300 ; leads relief party, 302. 
Brest, Island of. Cartier at. 22. 

Bretons, at Newfoundland, 19, 65 ; names of resembling Quebec, 55 note; oppose 

monopolies, 74, 75. 98, 268. See also Brittany. 
Bridgar, John, Governor at Port Nelson, capture and release of, 518. 



INDEX. 



547 



Bridge street, 25. 

Brittany, Estates of, declare St. Lawrence open to Breton traders, 127 ; oppose 

Company of Morbihan, 205. 
Brook St. Michel (Riviere aux Li&vres), Cartier near, 24. 
Brouage. birthplace of Champlain, 72 ; salt works of, 207. 

Brule. Etiennc, restored by Ilurons, 100; with Champiain, 119; courcur de hois, 
131, 169 ; captured by Ivirke, 195-106 ; serves English, 223 ; death, 223 note. 

Bruno, , in the Compagnie de la Baye d'lludson, 532. 

Buadc street, 241, 495 note; origin of name, 498. 

Buckingham, George VillUrs, Duke of, attack on Rochelle, 179. 210-211, 211-212; 

death, 212. 
Burgundy, annexed to France, 15. 

Butemps, , French sea captain, detained by ice, 240. 

Buteux, Jacques, Jesuit, arrives in Canada, 232 ; receives letter from Nagabamat, 

311 312 ; killed by Iroquois, 330. 
Cahanne aux Topicrs River (Riviure aux Topiers, Chalifour), Jesuit lands on, 

318. 324. 

Cabot, John and Sebastian, result of report of northern discoveries. 15, 19. 
Cabral, Pedro Alvarez, discovers Brazil, 14. 

Caen, Emery de, Huguenot naval captain, vice-governor of Canada, 166; cold re- 
ception of Jesuits. 172; seeks possession of Huron boy, 176; turbulence of 
his Huguenot crew, 177; sails to join La Ralde, 177-3 78; intercedes for cap- 
tive Indians, 179; refuses passage to Jesuits, 179; intercepted by Kirke, 195- 
196; attempts to relieve Quebec, 198, 206-207; captured by Kirke, 198. 199, 
213, 221; in Company of, 206; suspected of collusion with Kirke, 213-214; 
takes possession of Quebec. 214, 221, 222, 223 ; trading privileges granted to, 
218 ; reports details of English occupation, 218-219 ; religious tolerance of, 
224. See also Commercial Companies. 

Caen. Guillaume de, Huguenot merchant, letters from, 149; meets Champiain, 150; 
proceedings against Poutgrav^, 150, 151 ; at Tadousac, 152, 165 ; at Quebec, 
162, 164 ; favors Huguenots, 162-163 ; at Cap Tourmente, 164 ; returns to 
France, 164 ; makes tour of inspection, 166 ; territorial claims not confirmed, 
166; complaint against, 173; in Company of, 206; settlement with Kirkes, 
215-217; obligations under treaty of St. Germain, 222; claim against Com- 
pany of Hundred Associates, 225. See also Commercial Companies. 

Caen, France, de Bernieres at, 259. See also Hermitage of Caen. 

CallUres-Bonnevue, Louis Hector de, place of burial. 242, 356; proposes conquest 
of New York. 396 ; hastens to defend Quebec, 396 ; asks for money to com- 
plete Chateau St. Louis, 502. 

Calvin, John, bigotry of. 75 ; dogma not attractive to savages, 107, 248. 

Canada, French feudal customs transferred to. 16-17 (sec also Feudal system, 
Seigneuries) ; early explorations of, 19-50; dark ages of history of, 51 ; lan- 
guage of aborigines of, 52, 53 isce also Hurons. Iroquois) ; early schemes for 
colcnl/ation, 67-68, 69, 70; Huguenots excluded from, 75. 113. 381; powers 
granted La Roche in. 79; population of (1628) 108. (1622) 158, (1666) 379, 
(1681) 381; Recolletfi In. 11()-117, 127; evolution from trading domain to 
royal colony, 141 ; Sully opposed to maintennnco of, 154; comparative settle- 
ment of, l.")7-161, 265, 381-3S2; wandering habits of early colonists, 160: fur 
trade the central pivot, 174; niunlciiiai govornment granted to, 281, 28S-289 
(see also Coustltution. Council) ; habilants send deputation to Franc*-. 291- 
202; seeks allianco with New England, 303. 304-305; a crown c<»lnny, 333, 
37(> ; debt to Frontenac, 394; monnced by Iro(]uois, 395; raids on New Eng- 
land, 399; buroaucratic organization, 505-507; danger from English In the 
north, 517; card money, 522 (see also Currency). Sec also Now France. 



S48 



INDEX. 



Canada, Church of, conflict with civil powers,, 412 ; choice of bishop of, 413 (see 
also Laval); diocesan claims of La Rochelle and Nantes over, 413. 415; 
claims of see of Rouen over, 410, 410 note, 436 (see also Queylus) ; rights 
secured by Quebec Act, 449, /See also Roman Catholic Church. 

Canada, Royal Society of. Proceedings and Transactions cited, 53, 56. 

Candles, directors paid with, 209-210 ; given to Jesuits, 319 ; Candlemas distribu- 
tion, 320 ; mistake in use of, 329. 

Cap de Bonne Vue, Cartier's first landfall, 20. 

Cap Rouge, Cartier at, 34, 35-37, 43-44, 45, 46 ; fort built at, 44 ; Indians refuse 
to provision, 45 ; Roberval at, 46-48 ; outbreak of scurvy, 36, 47 ; ship built 
at, 48 ; harassed by Iroquois, 349, 353. 

Cap Tourmente, beaver meadows at, 164 ; de Caen at, 166 ; supplies Quebec with 
fodder, 175 ; cattle farm established, 177, 178 ; harried by English, 183, 184, 
187 ; seals killed at, 190 ; Nicolet at, 253 ; de Quen at, 327. 

Cape Blanc Sahlon, reached by Cartier, 22 ; rendezvous of Cartier's ships, 23. 

Cape Breton, trade conceded to de Monts, 82 ; seizure of English fort at, 221 ; in 
treaty of St. Germain, 221-222 ; rights of trade reserved, 280 ; importance of, 
383. 

Cape Diamond, bounds beaten, 328 ; Iroquois terrorize, 348. 
Cape of Good Hope, Huguenots at, 381. 
Cape Piennot, Cartier at, 23. 

Cape Verde Islands, point of demarcation in bull of Alexander VI, 14. 
Capuchins, rise of order, 114 ; mission on the Kennebec, 288, 303. 
Carihou sJcins, allowed to coureurs de hois, 521 note, 537. 

Carignan-Salieres regiment, at Quebec, 378, 379, 400, 404 ; soldiers settle in Can- 
ada, 392 ; in disputes for precedence, 460. See also Militia, Soldiers. 
Carpont, rendezvous of Cartier's fleet, 42. 

Cartier, Jacques, first voyage, 19-23 ; second voyage closes first cycle of American 
discovery, 9 ; stimulus of expedition, 16 ; narrative gives limit of earlier ex- 
plorations, 19 ; first to explore St. Lawrence, 20 ; landfall, 20 ; reason for sailing 
southward, 21 ; sketch of, 21-22 ; geography of first voyage, 22 ; carries 
Indians to France, 22-23, 38-39, 40 (see also Domagaya, Taignoagny). Second 
voyage, 23-39 ; misled by erroneous maps, 23-24 ; first winter quarters, 24-27, 
32. 35, 37, 87, 89, 174 (see also Stadacona) ; names the St. Croix, 24, 144; 
sickness among his men, 26, 29-30, 36 (see also Scurvy) ; friendship with 
Donnecana, 28 ; Indians oppose farther exploration, 28, 29 ; Hochelaga, 30- 
31 ; distrusts Indians, 33, 37-38 ; plants cross, 38, 40. Third voyage, 39-45 ; 
results of first and second voyages, 40-41 ; receives independent commission, 
41-42 ; sails on third voyage, 42 ; deceives savages, 42-43 ; second winter 
quarters, 43-44 (see also Cap Rouge) ; explores above Hochelaga, 44-45 ; meets 
Roberval, 45 • sails for Brittany, 45-46 ; names Canada La Nouvelle France, 
47 ; uncertainty of fate of, 49 ; sent to rescue Roberval, 49 ; conclusions re- 
garding St. Lawrence Indians deduced from, 51-52 ; vocabularies made by, 52- 
54 ; relations with Stadacona Indians, 56-57 ; on Indians of Hochelaga, 57 
(see also Hiirons and Iroquois) ; influence of voyages on commerce, 65, 68; 
leader in colonization, 67 ; claim on French government, 69 ; object of voyages, 
78-79; winter food, 88; claims of St. Malo merchants through, 102-103; 
under "The Tree," 322 note; first Canadian prospector, 324. 

" Cartier's tree," 37. 

Casgrain, Abhe Henri R., Sulpician, cited, 239; editor of Journal des Jesuits, 315. 
Casot, Jean Joseph (last Jesuit in Canada), deatk of, 315; Jesuit lands confis- 
cated on death of, 478, 
Castillon, Jacques, incorporator of Company of One Hundred Associates, 207; not 
qualified as seigneur, 264. 
Catherine," ship of de Caen Company, 174. 



INDEX. 



S49 



Catignon, Charles, summons Gitton, 531. 

Cauohnatcauha, Que., Indian population of (1901), 370 note. 

Caumont, Jean, dit le Mons. clerk of Company of Associates, 145-146, 147-148. 

Cayuga Lake, boundary of Onondaga territory, 59. 

Cayugas, Huron-Iroquois tribe belonging to league, ask for peace and return of 

Jesuits. 358 ; fighting strength of. 361. 
Cazot. See Casot. 

Censitaircs, tenants under feudal system, 235; cens et rentes paid by, 236-237, 
239; lods et vents imposed upon, 237, 239, 493 note; manner of paying, 239. 
See also Feudal system. 

Chabanel. Noel, Jesuit, death of, 301-302.. 

Chclon, , revenue agent, lays an embargo on goods of the Compagnie dti Nord, 

51S. 519. 

Chatnbly Ropids, Indians desert at, 92; allies take leave of Champlain at, 94. 
Chambalon, , notary. 536, 538. 

Champigny, Jean Bochart de, Intendant of Canada (1686-1702), 396; asked how 
cures are to be supported, 448 note; cited, 470 ; incurs anger of Saint Vallier, 
489 ; Louis XIV. to, 533. 534. 

Champlain, Helene Botille de, marriage contract with Champlain. 99, 243; arrival 
in Canada, 140, 141, 161 ; life in Canada. 167-168; death, 243; life of, 167. 

Champlain, Samuel de, finds relics of Cartier's expedition, 32; account of Rober- 
val's colony, 49 ; founds Quebec. 51, 78. 86 ; finds Stadacona succeeded by 
Quebec. 55, 55 note, 58, 72 ; Algonquin alliance with, 57 ; aids Hurons against 
Senecas, 59 ; meets De Chaste and sails for the St. Lawrence, 72 ; sketch of. 
72, 243 ; arrives at Quebec (1603). 72, (1608) 78 ; joins De Monts. 73 ; experi- 
ences in Acadia, 73-76 ; explores New England coast, 76-77 ; appeals to Mme. 
de Guercheville. 77. 95; advises abandoning Acadia, 77, 83; in command of 
new expedition, 77 ; compromises with Basque traders, 78 ; explores the 
Saguenay, 7S ; at Tadousac. 78, 96. 122, 128, 140; conspiracy against, 87-88; 
first winter in Quebec, 89-90 (see also Quebec, habitation de) ; first raid 
against Iroquois, 90, 92-93, 97 ; effect of alliance with Hurons, 90-92. 93-94 ; 
gifts to, 94; returns to France (1609), 94; audience with Henry IV. 95; 
sails for Canada (1610), 95-96; at Quebec. 96, 101, 108, 120, 122, 126, 130, 
132 ; fur trader. 96-97. 99-101 {see also Commercial Companies) ; in expedi- 
tion against Iroquois, 97-98 ; leaves Du Pare in charge at Quebec, 98 ; mar- 
riage of, 99 ; lieutenant of Cond^, 102, 103, 104 ; aversion to Malonius, 102- 
103 ; lieutenant of Soissons, 103, 104 ; alternates winter garrison of Quebec. 
104; explores the Ottawa, 100; names island of St. Helen. 110; introduces 
Maisonneuve to Indians. 110; establishes Recollets in New France, 111-112, 
117; leaves for Huron country, 118; ignored in records of Recollets, 120. 133, 
134, 135; entertains Huron chief. 120; holds council at Three Rivers, 130- 
131; sails for France (1618), 132; his diflBculties in adjusting interests of 
colony and company. 134, 135-136. 158; his place of abode from 1620-1632, 
134; refu.ses to exercise a divided authority, 136-140; convokes assembly, 
152-153; organizes a civil government, 154, 506 note; deprivations at Que- 
bec. 161-164; work on Ch.lteau St. Louis, 164-165 (see also Ch.lteau St. 
Louis): leaves De Caen in charge at Quebec, 166; reports to king, 169; 
under De Aentadour, 170, 173; sails for Canada (1626), 174; establishes 
cattle farm, 177, 178; enlarges Fort St. Louis. 177 (sec also Fort St. Louis) ; 
opposes war on Iroquois, 179, 180. 182; arrests Indians, 180; faces famine. 
182. 186. 187-1H9, 192, l!)7 ; warned of approach of English fleet. is.T; re- 
fuses to surrender, 184-185; releases Indians, 189-190; sends ship to F'rance, 
190-101; warned of return of English. 192-193; receives sfvond summons. 
193-194; submits terms of capitulation, 194. 195; cited, lur, ; deposition of. 
197, 201 ; sails with Klrke, 197, 198, 199 ; informed of establishment of Com- 



550 



INDEX. 



pany of Hundred Associates, 201, 211 ; receives details of English occupation, 
218-219 ; returns to Quebec as governor of New Prance, 224, 228 ; estab- 
lishes new posts, 230 ; builds chapel, 230-231 {see also Notre Dame de la 
Recouvrance) ; his austere life, 231 ; exhorts Indians, 240 ; death and funeral, 
240 ; place of burial, 240-242, 242 note, 356 ; will, 242-243 ; appointment of 
successor, 244 ; compared with Montmagny, 295-296 ; influence on social life 
of Quebec, 399 ; supports traders in brandy controversy, 453 ; Des Sauvages, 
72; Vomges (ed. of 1613), 78, 86, (ed. of 1619) 134, (ed. of 1632) 72, 78, 
134-135, 198. See also Laverdiere. 

Chamhly Rapids (later Richelieu Rapids), Champlain at, 92. 

Chnnfleur, Franqois de. Governor at Three Rivers, letter from Jogues, 276 ; pre- 
sented with captive Iroquois, 283 ; sends captive to treat for peace, 283 ; 
absent from post, 315. 

Chanjon, Ouillaume, accused by Gitton, 531 ; party to suit against Gitton, 531- 
532. 

Chapais, Thomas, Life of Talon, 448 note, 512 note. 
Chaplets (rosaries), Indian use of, 94. 

Charity, one of three Indian girls left with Champlain, 181 ; gathering roots, 192 ; 

included in Champlain's stipulations, 194 ; Champlain's affection for, 195 ; 

left with Mme. Couillard, 195. 
Charivari, practise condemned by Laval, 401. 

Charles I, of England, 199, 211 ; effect of execution of on French colonization, 
112; grant to Sir William Alexander, 211 note; signs Petition of Rights, 
212 ; signs treaty of Suze, 212 ; his use of treaty, 213 ; grant to Kirke's Com- 
pany of Canada, 214 ; price received for restoration of Canada, 214-215. 

Charles II. of England, poor colonial policy, 363 ; grants charter to Hudson Bay 
Company, 516 ; stock in Hudson Bay Company, 517 note. 

Charles I. (king) of Spain, V. (emperor) of Germany, 14; incites Francis I. to 
American exploration, 16, 40 ; destroys Algerian pirates, 16, 40 ; relations 
with Francis I., 40 : commercial concessions, 67 ; used to point a moral, 74. 

Charleshourg, Que., Indian population of 1901, 370 note. 

Charlevoix, Pierre FranQois Xavier de, Jesuit, cited on early explorations, 19, 23, 
24, 33 ; cited on Hochelaga Indians, 54 ; documents of treaty proceedings 
between New France and New England, 310 ; religio-political missions of the 
.Jesuits, 389-340, 346; cited 411 note; praises Canadian girls, 491; describes 
Jesuit college, 475-476. 

Charnisay, Charles de Menon, Seigneur d'Aulnay de, pursues La Tour, 306 ; his 
widow marries La Tour, 307 note. 

Charron, Claude, elected syndic, 430. 

Chartier de LotUniere, Louis Th4andre de, gives first ball In Canada, 403 note. 

Chartier de Lothiniere, Rene Louis de, director of Compagnie de la Colonie, 538. 

Chartres ("Monsieur le Prior"), secular priest, arrives at Quebec, 277; heaver 
skins confiscated from. 290. 

Chaste, Ayrnar de, forms a company, 72 ; employs Champlain, 72 ; death of, 73. 

Chasteaufort, Marc Antoine de Bras de Fer, acting governor of New France, re- 
ceives fealty of Giffard, 238 ; delivers keys to Montmagny, 245. 

Chastel, Edme, servant of Mme. d'Aillebout, 464. 

Chastelets, Noel Juchereau, Sieur des, arrives in Canada, 224 ; agent of Company 
of Habitants, 281 ; charges against, 286 ; envoy to France, 292, 293 ; remains 
in France, 292, 293 ; concessions secured by, 293-294 ; to supply pain henit, 
318 ; in Corpus Christi procession, 321 ; seignorial rights of, 323 ; manage- 
ment of company unsatisfactory, 325. 

Chastillon (Chatillon) . Jean Mignot, dlt, envoy to Huron, 293. 

Chateau St. Louis, site of, 145, 164, 494 ; building of, 161, 164, 165 ; feudal cus- 
toms at, 236, 238; garrison of, 392; reception of English envoy at, 397; 



INDEX. 



Schuyler at, 399 ; social life under French governors, 399-400 ; disappearance, 
484 ; sketch of. 500-505. See also Fort St. Louis, Habitation de Quehec. 

Chdiellenie, a holding under feudal tenure. 80, 237. See also Feudal system. 

Cathedral of Quebec, raised to a basilica, 241 ; site of, 419 ; instituted, 436 ; saved 
from lire, 482 ; reconstruction. 498 ; cathedral chapter organized, 379 ; cathe- 
dral chapter supplied, 483, 484 note. 

Chaudiere Falls, Iroquois haunt, 355. 

Chaudiire River, Algonquins on, 303, 491-492 ; DrulUettes on, 305. 

Chaumont (Chaumonot, Chaistnont), Pierre Joseph Marie, Jesuit, arrives in Can- 
ada. 261 ; on Onondaga mission, 342 ; originates Confraternitj' of the Holy 
Family, 403 note. 

Chauveau, Pierre J. O., Memoir on the Sovereign Council cited, 374 note. 

Chauvvjny, de, Seigneur de Vaubougon, father of Mme. de la Peltrie, 259. 

Chauvigny, Madeleine de. See La Peltrie. 

Chauvin, , Huguenot naval captain, receives trade monopoly from Henry IV., 

70; at Tadousac, 71 ; death of, 71. 
Chavigny de Berchcreau, Francois, member of council, 299. 

Chavin (Chauvin). Pierre, in command at Quebec, 94, 96, 103-104; returns to 
France, 98, 

Cheffault, Antoine, Sieur de la Renardiere. aids Company of One Hundred Asso- 
ciates through ChefFault-Rozee Company, 228 ; receives seigneury of Beaupr6, 
264. 

Cherokees, of Iroquois stock, 56. 

China, trade with opened by Portugal, 7; regarded as a mirage, 7; theories on 
western passage to, 8 ; search for western passage, 9 ; St. Lawrence to be ex- 
plored for route to. 105, 173. 

Chinese rites, result of Jesuit discussion of, 314 note; referred to, 473. 

Chomina, Montagnais chief, brings venison to colonists, 188 ; pleads for accused 
Indians, 189 ; sent to trade with Hurons for food, 192 ; Recollets propose to 
escape with, 197. 

Chourel, Mathieu, house burned, 351. 

Chretiennant, a refractory servant, 316. 

Christian Island, Huron refugees on, 302. 

Churches. See Notre Dame des Anges (chapel on Jesuit Residence), Notre Dame 
des Anges (Recollet), Notre Dame de la Recouverance, Notre Dame de la 
Victoire, Notre Dame de Quebec, Parish churches. Recollet church. 

Citadel of Quebec, site of, 87. 495. 

Clement V., Pope, modifies rules of St. Francis, 115. 

Clement X., Pope, forbids publication of missionary records, 314 note. 

Cochran, Andrew William, mentioned, 315. 

Code yapolvon, general use of, 234 

Colbert, Jean Bnptiste, French premier, effect of English republicanism on colonial 
policy of, 137-138, 370 ; enters upon government of Canada. 333, 303. 372 ; 
uses civil power to counteract ecclesiastical, 385. 437 ; ijioased with progress 
of Canadian shipbuilding, 385; views on trade, 387; builder of French navy, 
388 ; opposed to Laval's arrogance, 431 ; warns Courcelles, 433; refused abso- 
lution, 457; urges expulsion of Fngllsh from Hudson Ray. 518. 

Coliqny, Gaspard de. Admiral of France, colonization schemes of, 68, 112. 

Colin. Michel, death of, 119. 

Collier, , partner of De Monts, 99. 102. 

Colonies, formative influence of English, 17; first founded through corporate 
co operation, 07-6K ; constitution of F'rench exemplified by concessions (1508), 
7P SI, (IGO;^) 81-8.'^: constitution of Fnplish exemplified by charters (1583- 
1584) 84. (1603) 156, (161H) 157-158; policy of France In. 137-1.39. 154. 199- 
200, 204-205, 524, 526-527 ; policy of England In, 158-159, 100-161, 524-525, 



552 



INDEX. 



525 note, 527-528 ; Colonial Papers cited, 214, 218. See also colonies and 
countries by name, also Commercial Companies. 
Columhus, Christopher, first voyage promoted by Spain, 7 ; counsels with Tos- 
canelli, 8 ; American landfall of, 8 ; effect of Asiatic theory of, 8-9 ; state of 
Church of Rome at period of discoveries of, 11-12 ; compared to Cartier, 20, 
38-39 ; his doubt of Asiatic theory, 24 ; his caravels superior to " Le Coquin," 
191. 

Comhalletj Mme. de. See Aiguillon, 
Commerce. See Trade. 

Commercial Companies: rise and development of, 65-67; English (early), 67, 83- 
84, (recent) 527-528; character and constitution of French colonial, 78-83; 
created for development of North America, 154-155 ; restrictions of French, 
200 ; Hanseatic League, 65 ; " English Regulated," 67, 108 ; Bonnaisseux' 
Grande Compagnic de Commerce, 66. 

Company of Associates (De Chaste's), succeeds Chauvin, 72; formation, 
72 ; dissolution, 73. 

Company of Associates (De Monts') instituted, 73. 81-83; privileges 
suppressed, 74, 83, 94; establish Quebec, 83, 95, 101, 103; headquarters, 95; 
privileges expire, 95, 97, 98, 99 ; De Monts withdraws, 102 ; dissolved, 102 ; 
policy, 107 ; inadequacy, 205-206. 

Company of Associates, organized by Champlain, 102-103 ; patronized by 
Conde, 102, 104 ; powers of, 104-105 ; as a colonizer, 106, 107, 119-120, 122- 
123, 124, 127-128, 135, 138; constitution of, 108; vessels, 108; jealousy 
among associates, 110-111, 124-125, 127 ; confiscate cargo of Rochellaise 
vessel, 111 ; franchise extended, 111 ; establishes Recollets in Canada, 111- 
112; interests of, 121; Recollets dissatisfied with, 121, 144; affected by 
Huguenot reverses, 123 ; opposed in France, 124, 127 ; persecute Hubert, 125 ; 
articles drawn by De Monts, 124 ; gives Conde's salary to Recollets, 127, 139 ; 
privileges threatened by free trade act, 127; Indian policy of, 129; diflSculty 
in tracing history, 134 ; divided on trade issues, 135-136 ; attempts to remove 
Champlain, 136-137, 140 ; enjoined by Louis XIII., 138 ; Montmorency suc- 
ceeds Conde in, 139 ; authority of Champlain confirmed, 140 ; dissolved in 
favor of Company of De Caen, 146; Champlain instructed to seize property 
of, 147 ; protected by Champlain, 147 ; contentions with Company of De Caen, 
147-151 ; consolidates with Company of De Caen, 162 ; trade, 174-175 ; causes 
of failure, 205-206, 224. 

Company of De Caen, chartered by Montmorency, 146-147 ; troubles at 
Quebec with Company of Associates, 147-149, 150-151 ; king's degree, 149 ; 
consolidates with Company of Associates, 162 ; indifference to welfare of col- 
onists, 163, 170, 177, 196 ; sectarian complaints against, 170, 173 ; conten- 
tions in, 170 ; inhospitality to Jesuits, 172 ; capital of, 173-174 ; enjoined to 
employ Catholic admiral, 174 ; details of trade, 175 ; quarrels with Jesuits, 
179 ; weakness made known to English, 185 ; superseded by Company of One 
Hundred Associates, 186, 201, 207 ; hotel property seized by English, 195, 
197, 215, 216-218; causes of failure, 205-206; associates, 206; object of 
Kirke's raid, 213-214 ; value of trade, 214 note; allowed a year for settle- 
ment, 218, 221 ; settlement with English, 221-222 ; expiration of monopoly, 
265 ; payments received from Company of One Hundred Associates, 266. 

Company of MorMhan, organized, 205 ; sketch of, 205 ; constitution, 206. 

Company of One Hundred Associates (Company of New France, Com- 
pany of Canada), fleet seized by English, 185-186, 211; succeeds Company of 
De Caen, 186, 201, 205; established by Richelieu, 205-206; date of charter, 
206 ; Huguenots barred from, 206-207 ; incorporators, 207, 372 ; duties and 
powers, 207-209 ; articles of partnership, 209-210 ; interregnum between in- 
corporation and operation, 210, 224 ; send out fleet under Daniel, 221 ; begin- 



INDEX. 



SS3 



ning of operations in Canada. 224, 225 ; financial straits, 225-226. 228, 265 ; 
aided by auxiliary company (Cheffault-Rozee) . 225-226. 228. 265-266; resign 
privileges to people of Canada, 226, 279-280. 315, 371-372 (see also Company 
of Habitants) ; transfer rights to Louis XIV., 226, 333, 336, 371, 376 ; state- 
ment of accounts, 226-227 ; cedes lands to Jesuits, 230, 253 ; tenure of lands 
held by, 234-235, 237 ; chapel in storehouse of. 242 ; appoints successor to 
Champlain, 244, 282, 317, 322; promoters of religion, 248; site of store- 
house, 262 ; gifts for advancement of Indians, 264 ; trade checked by Iroquois, 
265, 266, 276. 279 ; consent to grant of Montreal Island, 271 ; oppose estab- 
lishment of Montreal, 272 ; bankruptcy. 276, 369 ; relations with the church, 
277-278, 279, 286 ; friction with Company of Habitants. 281-282. 286 ; popu- 
lar revolt against, 286-287, 372 ; under constitution of 1647. 289-290 ; retain 
seignorial rights, 291 ; small revenues, 293 ; lethargy, 296 ; shelters Jesuits, 
316; policy. 333; sketch of, 371-372; succeeded by Company of West Indies, 
376, 517; refuse to listen to Radisson and Groseilliers, 515-516; claim to 
Hudson Bay territory, 516. 

Company of Habitants, receives trading rights, 226, 279-280, 315. 371- 
372; terms of concession, 280-281, 286; first transaction, 281; dissensions, 
286-287. 291-292, 325 ; appeal for revision of treaty. 287 ; under Constitution 
of 1647, 289, 291 ; causes of failure, 292; trade checked by Iroquois, 292-293; 
consignments, 316, 324-3i;5. 

Company of the West Indies (French), abolition of, 375; succeeds Com- 
pany of One Hundred Associates. 376, 517; scope and object. 376; privileges 
and obligations, 376-377 ; history, 377-378 ; Canada under, 378-379, 394 ; per- 
mits English encroachment on Hudson Bay, 517-518. 

Compagnie du Soid (Compagnie de la baye d'Hudson. etablie en Canada, 
Compagnie du Canada), employ Radisson and Groseiliers. 518; successful ex- 
pedition, 518 ; cargo seized by revenue agents, 518 ; post seized by English, 
519; hold meeting at Quebec. 519, 529-531 : patent of incorporation, 519; re- 
organization and confusion of titles, 520 ; disputes between French and Cana- 
dian shareholders, 520, 521 ; decline, 521 ; privileges revoke<l, 521 ; process 
against Gitton, 531-532; correspondence with Louis XIV., 532-536. 

Compagnie du Canada (Compagnie du Castor, Compagnie de la Colonic), 
established, 521 ; bankrupts farmer of revenue, 521 ; system of reorganization, 
521 ; contract with coureurs de hois, 521 note, 536-538. 

Mississippi Company (French), ill success of, 524. 

African Company (English), organization of, 67. 

British yorth Borneo Company, founded, 527. 

BritU<ih South Africa Company, 527-528. 

Company of Canada (Merchant Adventurers to Canada), English, or- 
ganized by Kirke, 214; duration and losses of, 215, 216; property seized by, 
216-217. 

Company of Plymouth Adventurers (English), established. 83-84, 155- 
156; unsuccessful venture, 156. 

East India Company, first of great English stock companies, 67. 

Hudson Bay Company (English) colonization inimical to Interests of, 
123, 130, 155, 524 note; founded. 516; Invados French territory. 516. 517- 
518; Albanel reconnolters, 516-517; apology of directors. 517 note; Jollet 
sent to report on, 518; attacked l)y French, 518; challenged by Ln Barre, 
519-520; De Troyes' attack on, 520, 52.'^; summary of conflicts with French, 
520; charter of, 525 note. 

Imperial British Hast Africa Comjiany, creation and sale of, 527. 

Levant Company (English), establishment of. 67. 

London Company (English), created, 83, 155; antecedents, 83-84; com- 
position of reorganized, 84. 157; purpose, 155; first expedition, 156, 157; 
charter, (1606) 155-157, (1618) 157-158. 



554 



INDEX. 



Northivest Fur Company (English), Inimical to colonization, 136, 524 

note. 

Royal Niger Company (English), sale of, 527. 
Russian (Muscovy) Company (English), organization of, 67. 
German East Africa Company, resigns governing functions, 528. 
German New Guinea Company, resigns governing functions, 528. 
Portuguese Merchants' Company, founding and purpose of, 67. 
Brazil Company (Portuguese), founding of, 67. 
United Neiv Netherland Company (Dutch), founds factory, 84. 
West India Company (Dutch), selfish policy of, 155. See also Fur 
trade, Jesuits, Trade. 
Comporte. See Gauthier. 

Comte, a holding under feudal tenure, 80. See also Feudal system. 

Conde, Henri de Bourbon, Prince de, Viceroy of New France, has Champlaln for 
his lieutenant, 102, 103, 104 ; succeeds Soissons, 103 ; renews trading priv- 
ileges, 104 ; commission to Champlain, 104-105 ; political status of, 107 ; 
grants passport to Maisonneuve, 110 ; imprisoned, 124 ; protests against diver- 
sion of salary, 127 ; gift to Recollets, 139 ; sells viceroyalty, 139. 

Connecticut Colony, member of confederation, 308 ; sale of firearms to Iroquois 
checked in, 309 ; reasons for alliance with French, 310. 

Constitution, autocratic nature of, 220 ; of 1647, 289, 289 note, 299, 326 ; of 
1663, 372-373, 374-375. 

Conventuals, sub-order of Franciscans, sketch of, 116. 

Cooper, Samuel, limits power of British navy, 398 note. 

Copper, early rumors of, 32. 386 ; explorers commissioned to seek, 173 ; discovery 
of, 324, 386. 

Corneille, , clerk, delivers keys to Kirke, 195. 

Corneille, Pierre, Heraclius given at Quebec, 402 ; Le Cid given at Quebec, 402. 
Cortereal, Qaspard, and Miguel, expeditions of, 15 ; results of reports of, 19. 
Corvee (statute-labor), enforced in Quebec, 505. See also Feudal system. 
Cosset, Rene, coureur de hois, text of contract, 536-538. 
Cote, George, investigations of, 241. 
Cote de Beaupre, I.ahontan at, 490-491. 
cote de Lauzon, population of, 379. 
Cote Ste. Genevieve, mill built on, 323. 

Coton, Pierre, Jesuit, inspires Mme. de Guercheville's Interest in Jesuit missions, 
77. 

Cotton, Jean, coureur de hois, text of contract, 536-538. 

Coudran, , Jesuit, influence on Mme. de la Peltrie, 259-285. 

Coudre sur Narrean, France, beaver skins seized at, 82, 

Couillard, Guillaume, Sieur de I'Espinay, early colonist, 169 ; refuses to sail ship, 
183 ; English agree to respect property of. 195 ; in Quebec during English 
occupation, 198, 219, 223 ; daughter christened 219 ; persuades Hurons to con- 
vey priests, 232 ; joins expedition against Iroquois, 246 ; site of house, 322, 
481 notej altar in house, 322. 

Couillard, Mme. Guillaume (nee Hubert), authority on Iroquois raid, 167: takes 
charge of Indian girls, 195 ; land bought from, 481. 

Couillard, Louis Guillaume, Sieur de TEspinay, imports oxen, 200 ; finds body of 
Lauzon, 357. 

Council of I6ip, composition of, 289, 299 ; duties, 289 ; powers, 289 ; modified, 294 ; 
negotiations with New England commissioners, 310 ; power of the church In, 
526. 

Council of 1663 (Conseil Sup§rieur), constituted, 373, 379, 445, 505; composition 
of, 373. 374, 505; powers, 373-374, 505, 512; cases covered by, 374 note; 
action on tithe ordinance, 445, 447-448, 448 note; action on liquor traffic, 



IXDEX. 



454, 457-458 ; meeting place of, 494-495 ; sketch of, 505-506 ; ordinances, 
512 ; powers of the church in. 526 ; Edits et Ordon nances, 492 note; Chau- 
veau"s Metnoir, cited, 374 note. 
Council Provincial^ 484. 

Courcelle, Daniel de Remy, Seigneur de, governor of New France (1665-1672), 
378, 394, 432 ; arrives at Quebec, 378-379 ; investigates charges against De 
Mezy, 432; resents ecclesiastical control, 433; blames Jesuits for perfidj' of 
converts, 433 ; hostile to Laval. 435 ; recalled, 436 ; plan to protect fur trade, 
5u8. 

Courcurs dc bois, influence of on expansion of New France, 131 ; obnoxious to civil 
and religious government. 132, 165-166; defy liquor laws, 454; contract with 
employers, 521 note, 536-538. 

Courserun, Gilbert, signs petition to the king. 153 ; civic oflBce of, 154. 

Coussinoc (Koussenac), now Augusta. Me., Druillettes at, 305-306; farmer of men- 
tioned. 307. 

Coutume de Paris, law of Quebec, 234 ; law of New France, 377. See also Feudal 
system. 

Couture. GuiUaume, returns from captivity, 283 ; Iroquois seek refuge in house of, 
349. 

Cramoisy, Sebastian, incorporator of Hundred Associates, 372 note. 
Crees, Algonquin tribe, 51. 

Criminals, sent as colonists, 41-42, at Cap Rouge, 47. 

Cromicell, Oliver, effect of wars of on French alliance, 310; colonial policy of, 868. 
Cudragny, Indian god. threatens Cartier, 29. 

Cuillerie, Jran Baptistc, courcur de bois, text of contract, 536-538. 
Cur^s. See Secular clergy. 

Currency, copper of Quebec. 512 note; beaver, 521; card, 522. 

Dablon, Claude, Jesuit, on Onondaga mission, 342 ; Relations cited, 385, 388. 

Dablon, Simon, member of Hundred Associates. 207. 

Daillon, La Roche. Sec La Roche Daillon. 

Dancino. on ilardi Oras, disapproved by priests. 325 ; on St. John's day. 328 ; 

first ball in Canada, 403 note; approved by Frontenac, 404. See also Ballet. 
Daniel, Antoine, Jesuit, obliged to defer Huron mission, 229-230; at Three Rivers, 

232 : starts on Huron mission. 232 ; martyred, 233, 293 ; return of, 247. 
Daniel, Charles, in command of vessel with emigrants and supplies for Quebec, 221 ; 

raids English settlement, 221. 

Darachc, . Basque trader, fires on Portgrave, 78. 

Daran. Adrien, Jesuit, starts on Huron mission, 300. 
Dauphin of France. See Louis XIV. 
Davenport, John, schismatic, 76. 

Davost, Ambroisc, Jesuit, obliged to defer Huron mission. 229-230; enters on 
Huron mission, 232-2.S3 : return and enthusiasm of. 247. 

Dcbencc, Pierre, Controllrr-rieneral of the king's farms in Canada, asks aid for 
Compagnie du Nord, 533, 535. 

Dc Kahn. Sec K.llm. 

De la Pole, William, Earl of Suffolk, also Count of Brl-Quebec, suggests Norman 

origin of Quebec. 55 note. 
Delaicare River, Dutch colonies on. 155. 
Delins, , of the Compagnie de la Colonic, 538. 

Dclino. Mathieu, joins In asking aid for the Compagnie du Nord, 534, 535. 

Delorme, (<ee Soumande. 

De Uaistrc. See Lo Mnistre. 

Demonic. , In ('f)mpngnie du Nord, 533. 535. 

Demonoloov, perplexes Indians, 250. 

Denis, Simon, Sleur de Vltr^, owns flour mill, 351 ; servant taken by Laval, 424 
425. 



556 



INDEX. 



Denonville, Jacques Rene de Brisay, Marquis de, Governor of Canada (1685-1689), 
urges building of forge, 385 ; unable to quell Iroquois, 395 ; endeavors to ad- 
just tithes, 448 note; dislike for Canadian traits, 491 ; builds powder magazine, 
501 ; opposes the use of Fort Nelson as neutral post, 523. 

Denys, Jean, explorations of, 19. 

De Pere, Wis., origin of name, 387. 

De Peyras, carries report of Council to France, 458. 

De Puort, , carries report of Council to France. 458. 

De Sanrel, , member of the Compagnie de la Baye d'Hudson, 532. 

Des Boi'ies, Charles, Recollet, Grand vicaire de Pontoise, his name given to St. 
Charles River 25, 144 ; receives description of Recollet monastery, 142, 143 ; 
aid to Recollets, 144 ; belief in education. 462. 

Deschesnes (Des Clitnes), Thomas Poree, in Company of De Caen, 140, 206. 

Desdames, Thierry, French naval captain, sent to reconnoiter English. 185 ; 
reaches Quebec, 186 ; sails in " Le Coquin," 191 ; brings letter to Champlain, 
201 ; pursues Iroquois, 246. 

Des Hostels, Joseph, dit Lapointe, eoureur de tois, text of contract, 536-538. 

Desmoulins, , sent to free traders for assistance, 189. 

Des Ormeavx, Daulac (Dollard), self-sacrifice of, 355, 356. 

Desportes, Pierre, signs petition to king, 153 ; early colonist, 169 ; under English, 
223. 

Destouches, , ensign of Champlain, 174. 

De Verger, , General of Order of Franciscans, 111. 

Dieppe, France, fishing industry of, 69-70 ; Jesuits sail from, 171-172 ; nuns from, 

261, 269; Montreal colonists sail from, 271. 
Dionne, N. E., Etudes Historiques, 242 note. 
Dogs, used for draught, 509. 
Dollard. See Des Ormeaux. 

Dollier de Casson, Fran<;ois, Sulpician, explores Lake Erie, 390; humility of, 
411 ; Histoire de Montreal, cited, 271, 411, 413-414. 

Dolu, , chief usher of France, appointed Intendant of New France, 139 ; con- 
firms authority of Champlain, 140 ; solicits arms for Champlain, 146 ; orders 
seizure of property of Company of Associates, 147 ; defines rights and duties 
of companies, 149 ; member of Company of De Caen, 206. 

Bomagaya, Indian boy, taken to France by Cartier, geographical aid of, 22-23, 27 : 
experience in France, 27-28, 40, 42 ; opposes Cartier's advance, 28 ; visits 
Cartier, 32 ; terrifies explorers, 33-34 ; advises remedy for scurvy, 36 ; plots 
against, 37-38 ; capture of, 38-39 ; fate of, 40. See also Taignoagny. 

Dominicans, protectors of Indians, 17, 112; inquisitors, 113; foundation of order 
of, 113; austerity of, 114. 

" Don de Dien," vessel of Champlain's fleet, 228, 

Dongan, Thomas, Governor of New York, cited on liquor traffic, 450. 

Donnecana, Indian chief, guides Cartier, 24 ; stockade of, 26, 34, 87 ; his aid solic- 
ited, 27 ; professions of friendship, 28 ; attempts to prevent ascent to Hoche- 
laga, 29 ; entertains Cartier, 32 ; conspiracy against, 37-38 ; seizure of, 38- 
39 ; fate, 40, 42 ; descendants, 55, 88. 

Dooyentate, Peter, cited. 56. 

Dorchester Bridge, 25. 

Dosquet, Pierre, Bishop of Quebec, deplores social laxity, 406. 

Doudiettes, , solicits aid for Compagnie du Nord, 533. 

Doughty, Arthur George, cited, 496 note, 503, 504. 

Douglas, WilUam, Summ.ary of British Settlements in North America, cited, 520. 
Drouin, Mme. Robert^ burial of, 327. 

Druillettes, Gabriel, .Tesuit. in charge of Algonqulns, 288, 303 ; sketch of, 303-304 ; 
political agent, 288, 303-304; first visit to New England, 305-306, 307-309; 



INDEX. 



557 



reports to Quebec, 310 ; title of priest omitted, 310 ; second visit to New Eng- 
land, 310-312 ; returns to Quebec, 311 ; accompanies Le Moj-ne, 350 ; report on 
population of New England, 302; Journals, referred to, 309-310. 

DuchesnCj Adrien, early colonist. 109 ; transfers land to Martin, 223. 

Duchesne, lltne. Adrien, sponsor in baptism. 219. 

Duchesne, David, member of Hundred Associates, 207, 

Duchesneau, Jacques, Sieur de la Doussiniore, Intendant of New France (1675- 
1682), 375; quarrels with governor, 375, 441. 456; partisan of Laval, 304, 
441; arrives in Canada. 394-395, 441, 454-455; recalled, 395, 458; urged to 
act against English at Hudson Bay, 518. 

Dudley, Thomas, Governor of Massachusetts colony, entertains Druillettes, 303, 
3U7; friendly to French, 308. 

Dudouyt, Jean, priest, vicar for Laval, 304 ; sent to Paris to plead against brandy 
traffic, 450, 457 ; advises Laval, 458 ; arrives at Quebec, 466. 

DueUing, a common practise. 320-321. 

Dufferin Terrace, site of, 145, 494. 

Dufourncl, , claim for tithes, 448 note. 

Dulhut (Duluth), Daniel Greysolon, reaches the Mississippi, 390. 
Duluth, Minn, origin of name, 387. 
Du Marais, , at Quebec, 190. 

Dumay, , agent of De Caen Company, intercepts le Mons, 146 ; bearer of dis- 
patches to Champlain, 146-147 ; guards habitation, 148 ; sent to de Caen, 149. 

Du Mesnil (Dumesnil), Jean Peronne, Sieur de Maze, investigates Company of 
Hundred Associates, 372; accused by Jesuits, 429. 

Dumnnt, , king's commissioner, arrives in Canada, 363-364. 

Dumoulin, , murder of. 180-181, 235. 

Dunnter, Henry, first president of Harvard University, 466. 

Du Pare, Pierre, reports to Champlain, 96; left in charge of Quebec, 98; early In- 
habitant of Quebec, 103. 

Du Plessis, Pacifique. Recollet, arrives in Canada, 111-112; subdues Indian revolt, 
loO, 141 ; sails for France, 132; death of, 141-142; first Canadian schoolmas- 
ter, 462. 

Duplessis Bochart , Guillaume OuiUemot, assumes possession of Quebec, 222 ; ar- 
rival in Canada, 224 ; persuades Hnrons to guide Jesuits, 232 ; detained by 
ice, 240; death of, 336. 

Duplex, Claude, coureur de hois, text of contract, 536-538. 

Du Pont. aSV-c I'ontgrave. 

Duprat. Francois, in (.'ompagnie du Nord. 533, 535. 

Du Puis, Zacharie, in command of Onondaga expedition, 347. 

Durham Terrace, site of, 145, 494. 

Dutch, trouble.sorae neighbors, 84, 85 ; sell firearms to Iroquois, 84-85, 245. 248, 
275; alliance with Iroquois, 93, 296; estal)lished on the Hudson. 136; traders 
murdered by Mohawks, 177; French alliance with. 244 ; lack spirit of explora- 
tion, 247 ; supply clothing to French captives, 266 ; refuse to espouse Indian 
quarrels, 207-2<;8. 

Duval, Jean, conspires against (.'hamplaln, 87; execution of, 88. 

Du Vernay, , r(»pf)rts ill usage of French by Indians. 

Earthuunkr of 1003. 366-308. 

East Indies, St. Lawrence to be explored for route to, 105; Champlain to open 

communication with, 173. 
Ecu, French money, value of, 175 note. 
Edmonson, Joseph, Heraldry, cited, 55 note. 

Eels, staple f*)od of Indians. 88; season for curing, 180; exorbitant price of. 187; 

Champlain stipulates price. 190: catch of 1640, 325. 
EHot, John, non-conformist minl3t»;r. entertains Druillettes, 304, 307-30S ; method 

of evang(>ll'/,atlon, 3o7 note ; Lo<jick Primer, 307 note. 



558 



INDEX. 



"Eliza of London/' free traders' ship, 216. 

" EmeriUon/' ship of Cartier's fleet, dimensions of, 25 ; on Lake St. Peter, 31 ; 

on third voyage, 42. 
Endicott, John, entertains and advises Druillettes, 309. 

England, undervalues discoveries of Cabots, 15 ; influence of wars of, on American 
colonies, 17 ; Reformation in, 62, 6.3 ; claim to Hudson River region, 84 ; her 
political freedom obnoxious to French statesmen, 137, 220 ; intimidates Cana- 
dians, 179; encourages Huguenots, 206, 210-212; commissions to privateers, 
211 note; reasons for neglect of Canada, 214; peace of Ryswick, 399. See 
also Colonies. Commercial Companies. 

English, their potential power recognized by Champlain, 91 ; to be checked by 
French affiliation with Hurons, 92 ; alliance with Iroquois, 93, 296 ; right of 
trade in the Levant, 95 ; claim Newfoundland, 136 ; threaten Quebec, 183, 
191, 192 ; plunder Cap Tourmente, 183-184, 187 ; capture de Roquemont, 185- 
186 ; demand surrender of Quebec, 193-195 ; in possession of Quebec, 195-199 ; 
first to sell liquor to Indians, 252 ; traveler deported from New France, 270 ; 
advance toward St. Lawrence checked, 296 ; at Hudson Bay, 516-517, 518, 
519, 520. 

Epidemics among Indians, 247, 249-250, 255, 285-286; among immigrants, 352- 

353 ; of cholera, 494. See also Scurvy. 
Episcopal Palace, described, 497-498, 497 note. 

Erasmus, Desiderins, ignores American discoveries, 10 ; essays in reform, 11 ; 

tolerance of, 75, 472. 
Eries (Cat nation), destruction of, 342. 
Escoumains, Que., Indian population of 1901, 370 note. 

Etchemins, Algonquin tribe, asked to send food to Quebec, 192 ; in peace council, 
283 ; conclude alliance with French, 192. 

Europe, indifferent to discovery of America, 10, 12; domination of religion in, 11; 
religious dissensions, 11, 12; politics of sway America, 13, 14; influenced by 
America, 18 ; disrupting forces transferred to America, 62-64. 

Executioner, felon appointed, 329. 

Faillon, Abhe Michel Etienne, Sulpician, cited, 55 note, 219 ; accuses Company of 

Associates of bigotry, 111 ; humility of, 411 ; Colonic Fran^aise, 30, 242, 411. 
Faith, one of three Indian girls left with Champlain, 181 ; with her tribe, 192. 
Pauls, Antoine, secular priest, sails from France, 271 ; arrives at Montreal, 274. 
Favreau, Joseph, coureur de hois, text of contract, 536-538. 
Feaute, Pierre, Jesuit brother, engaged in fisheries, 321. 
Feguenonda, Indian village, situation of, 34. 
Felty, Thomas, punished for stealing beaver skins, 215. 

Fenelon, Franqois de Salignac, Abbe de, Sulpician, criticises Frontenac, 400, 438 ; 
arrest of, 437. 

Ferdinand V. of Castile, II. of Aragon, III. of Naples, //. of Sicily, marriage of, 8. 

Ferland, Ahhe J. A. B., cited, 55 note, 165, 230, 374 note, 468. 

Ferte, Jean Juchereau fiJs, Sieur de la, sings in church, 317. 

Ferry, first established between Quebec and Point Levis, 510. 

Fite Dieu (Corpus Christi festival), observances of, 321-322, 415, 426. 

Feudal system, transferred to Canada, 16-17, 80, 233-234, 236 ; rights of La Roche 
under, 79-80, 237 ; passing of in France, 201-202, 234 ; rights of king under, 
208, 234, 235, 236, 237 ; position of governor of Canada under, 234. 236, 237 ; 
Coutume de Paris, 234, 277 ; land tenure under, 236, 237 ; haute, moyenne et 
hasse justice under, 236. 526 ; fusing effect of, in Canada, 238, 239 ; habitants 
oppressed by, 291 ; Company of West Indies created under, 377 ; corv6e (stat- 
ute-labor) under, 504-505. See also Companies, Land, Seigneurs, Seigneuries. 

Fief, a holding under feudal tenure, 80, 235, 237 ; division of, 237-238 ; of Gron- 
dines, 265. See also Feudal system. 



INDEX. 



559 



Filles de la Congregation, order of, 411, 411 note. 

Firearms, supplied to Indians by Dutch, 84-85, 275 ; supplied to Indians by Rochel- 
laise. 140; Iroquois armed with, 294; English restrict sale of, 309. See also 
Armament, Artillery. 

Fire-tcood, sale of, established, 317; price of In 1646, 325. 

Fires, of 1640, 241, 316; in temporary chapel, 317; frequency of, 351, 482; meth- 
od of extinguishing. 351; of 1701, 482; ordinance against roadside, 509; 
chimney tax imposed. 510. 

Fishing, monopoly of granted to Company of Hundred Associates, 208 ; catch of 
1646, 324 ; rights conferred on Charles de Lauzon, 334 ; encouraged by govern- 
ment, 385. 

Fire Xations. See Iroquois. 

Flax, included in the Edict on Tithes, 509. 

Fletcher, Benjamin, Governor of New York, asked to prevent sale of liquor. 450 
note. 

" Flihot," vessel in Kirke's fleet, 193. 

Florida. Iroquois tribes in, 50: Huguenot colony In, 68, 112; boundary limit of 

cession to Hundred Associates, 208. 
Flour, scarcity of, 357 ; exportation of, 385. 
Foligno, Paulet de, Franciscan, 116. 

Forest, , seminarist, arrives at Quebec, 466. 

Forcstur, Antoine, coureur de hois, text of contract, 536-538. 

Fort Albany (.Tames Bay), held by Hudson Bay Company, 517; Joliet sent to. 518, 
Fort Bourbon, capture of by French, 521 ; offered by Louis XIV. to Compagnie du 

Nord, 532-534 ; Compagnie du Nord beg king to retain it during war, 535. 
Fort Cataraqui. See Fort Frontenac. 
Fort Charles, built by English, 516. 

Fort Frontenac (Cataraqui). abandoned, 395: scandal concerning, 455; seized by 

La Salle's creditors, 508 ; first in chain of posts to surround English, 526. 
Fort Moose, English trading post, 517. 
Fort Nassau, Iroquois trade at, 246. 

Fort Nelson, to be neutral trading post, 523; aid sought by French against Eng- 
lish near, 529. 

Fort Orange (afterward Albany), clothing obtained for French captives at, 266. 
Fort Richelieu, building of, 274 ; Montmagny seeks Iroquois at, 276 ; site of, 280 ; 

Jogues at. 285 ; garrison withdrawn, 285, 288 298 ; burned by Iroquois, 288 ; 

neglect of, 315. 
Fort Rupert, English trading post, 517.. 

Fort St. Louis, erected by Champlain. 140. 145 ; armament for, 140, 151-152, 196- 
197. 216-217; site of, 145, 500. 500 note; fortified, 148; neglect of, 175, 177; 
enlarged, 177; towers fall. 182-183, 191; summoned by English, 193-194; 
Kirke takes possession of. 196; English colors raised, 197; garrison deported, 
198: rpturne^ to French, 213; df^cribed by EngliHh, 217; strengthened by 
Montmagny, 246. 327 ; Gagnon's Lc fort et le chateau Saint Lov.is, 501 note. 
S* f alHij ("liAtt-au St. Loui.s. Ilahiiation de QuCber. 

Fort Sorcl, Richelieu on site of, 280. 

Fouchrr, , In charge of cattle farm. 177; escapes English, 183, 184. 

Fournier, , French ship captain. pnr.sue8 Iroquois, 246. 

Fournier. Mme. JacqucH. t)url('sque petition of, 374 note. 

France, early colonizer of America, 13-14, 83; famous voyage Instituted by, 15; 
state of at period of discovery of America, 15; lack of navy, 15; colonial 
policy, 16-17, 137-139. 524. 526-527; effect of wars of on Amprlcnn colonlen, 
17; rivalry with Spain, 40; absolutism, 63; first to trade with Levant. 67; 
first colonizer through corporate co-operation, 67-68; Canadian policy of Ini- 
tiated by Champlain, 91 ; rights of citizenship, 209, 377; unable to aid Can- 



INDEX. 



ada, 276 ; makes no provision for colonial troops, 284 ; conversion of Indians 
prime object of, 295 ; expansion of, 388 ; issues medal to commemorate Cana- 
dian victory, 298 ; establisties peace witli England, 399 ; controversy witli 
Rome over bisliopric of Canada, 436 ; abolishes order of Jesuits, 476 ; data In 
colonial office, 505. 
France Prime, name given to Canada, 47. 

Francheville, Pierre de, priest, seelis relief for clergy, 447-448 ; at Jesuit college, 
471. 

Franche ComU, annexed to France, 15. 

Francis I. of France, relations with Charles V., 16, 40, 107; claims share of Amer- 
ica, 16 : commission to Cartier, 24 ; inconsistencies of, 33, 71 ; inscription to, 
38 ; dedication to, 39 ; appoints de Roberval, 41 ; commissions Cartier, 41-42 ; 
commercial spirit, 65 ; colonial system of, 81-138. 

Franciscans, established at Quebec, 111, 115 ; compared to Dominicans, 112-113 ; 
sub-orders, 114-117 ; hampered by poverty, 170-171 ; forbidden to hold real 
estate, 171 ; narrow views of, 174 ; in California, 264. Bee also St. Francis 
d'Assisi, Recollets. 

Franklin, Benjamin, schemes of federation distrusted, 525. 

Franquelin, Jean Baptisie, royal engineer, plan of Quebec, 481. 

French, fishermen, follow explorers, 19 ; Iroquois hatred of, 38 ; relations with 
Hurons, 58. 90-92 ; success with Indians, 93 ; to be expelled from Canada, 211 
note; averse to emigration, 238; rights secured by Quebec Act, 449. 

French River, Huron line of flight, 61. 

Frdres donnSs, obligations of, 463 note. 

Frdres Mineurs (Minor Brothers, Minorites, Brethren of the more strict observ- 
ance, Observantists). See Franciscans. 

Fripons, term applied by Lalemant, 325. 
Frohisher, Sir Martin, 9. 

Frontenac, Anne de la Orange-Trianon de, Comtesse de, sketch of, 405. 

Frontenac, Louis de Buade, Comte de. Governor of Canada (1672-1682, 1689- 
1698) ; burial place of, 242, 356 ; compared to Montmagny, 295, 296 ; quar- 
rels with Intendant, 375 ; convokes assembly, 375 ; urges building of forge, 
385 ; encourages expansion, 390 ; appointed Governor of Canada, 393, 436 ; 
character and administration, 393-395, 436-437, 454-456 ; recalled, 394, 395, 
458-459, 507 : reappointed, 396, 459, 501 ; at Montreal, 396 ; defends Quebec, 
396, 397, 398-399 ; reception of English envoy, 397 ; reward of, 398-399 ; death 
of, 399, 490 ; scheme to isolate English colonies, 384, 399, 526 ; angers Jesuits 
by proposing to give Tartuffe, 402-405 ; authorizes brandy traffic, 452 ; belief 
in education for Indians, 465 ; rebuilds chateau and fort, 502 ; builds fortifica- 
tions, 503-504 ; colonial policy of, 526 ; dispatch of Louis XIV. to, 533, 534. 

Fur trade, Tadousac center of in 1608, 51, 70 ; colonizing conditional to monopoly 
of, 68 ; Cartier's privileges, 69 ; Lescarbot cited on, 69 ; Chauvin's monopoly, 
70 ; post established at Tadousac, 70 ; De Chast's monopoly. 71-72 ; De Monts' 
monopoly, 73 ; Basque fishers assert rights in, 78 ; post established at Quebec, 
78 ; inducements of, 79 ; La Roche's monopoly, 79 ; De Monts' concession, 82- 
83 ; profits of, 174 ; pivot of mission work, 174 ; in 1625, 174-175 ; wages of 
employes, 175, 175 note, 521 note, 537-538 ; prices of skins, 216 ; Kirke's cargo, 
218; English rivalry, 229; paralyzed by Iroquois, 268, 276, 292-293; occa- 
sional activity, 300, 329-330, 351, 356, 368; New England a better market 
than France, 304 ; of 1648, 328 ; Lauzon's policy of expansion, 343 ; regu- 
lated by Council, 374 ; expansion of, 390 ; inimical policy of Iroquois. 508 ; 
Mackenzie's report, 522-523; Henry cited, 523 note; adverse to colonization, 
524 note; employs forbidden individual traffic, 537. See also Commercial 
Companies, Liquor traffic, Trade. 

Oahoury, Louis, punishment of. 374 note. 



INDEX. 



Oahriel (Gibraire), a Frenchman, slain by Iroquois, 97-98. 

Qagnon, Ernest, Fort ei Chateau St. Louis, 501 note. 
Gaillai-d, GuiUaume, witness, 536. 
Gaillon, Michel, execution of. 47-48. 
Galigai, Etienne, mentioned, 124. 

Oaligai, Leonora, Mar^chale d'Ancre, execution of, 123; relatione with Richelieu, 
202. 

Galinee, Rene de Brehant de, Sulpician, explores Lake Erie. 390. 

GalHcanism, opposed by Jesuits, 417, 418; favored by Talon, 433; Canadian 

Church freed from, 436. See also Roman Catholic Church. 
Gamache, Wieolas Rohnut, Marquis de, gift to Jesuits, 253. 
Gamache, Rene Rohault de, gift to Jesuits, 253, 469, 
" Garqon," Boston ship, 518. 
Garemand, Mme. Pierre, killed by Iroquois, 355. 
Gamier, Charles, Jesuit, death of, 301. 
Gamier, Johan, purchases arms for New France, 70. 
Garreau, Leonard, Jesuit, death of, 344. 

Gaspi, Philippe, Anhert de, Anciens Canadiens cited, 493; Memoir* cited, 498-499. 

Gaspe (district on Gulf of St. Lawrence), trade monopoly of granted De Monts, 
82 ; boundary of de Caen's monopoly, 141, 173 ; Pontgrav^'s journey from. 
179, 190; de Roquemont's fleet at, 185; salt sought at, 189; buildings burned 
at. 191 ; Quebec fugitives land at, 191 ; " Le Coquin " captured near, 195. 

Gaspe Basin, early site, 23 ; Yan lands corn at, 309 ; silver at. 38G. 

Gaudais, Louis, French commissioner, dismisses actions against officials, S72. 

Gaudar, Mme. seignory of Gaudarville, named for, 334. 

Gaufestre, Jean, Jesuit brother, sails for Canada, 174. 

Gauffon (Goffre, La Gauffre), , nominated for bishop, 413. 

Gauthier, , robbed by Iroquois, 349. 

Gauthier, Philippe, Sieur de Comports, delegate of Compagnie de la Baye d'Hud- 
son, 519. 529, 530; in process against Gitton, 530, 531. 

General Hospital (L'Hopital General de Quebec), site of. 143, 443; founded by 
St. VaJlier, 143, 443 ; St. Vallier's plan of establishing, disapproved, 466, 489 ; 
value of, 480. 

Genessee River, Iroquois occupy valley of, 56, 275. 

Gentlemen Adventurers, with Cartier, 31 ; with Roberval, 65. 

Georges, , Rochelle merchant, turns back free traders, 110. 

Georgian Bay, migration of Ilurons to, 55, 58, 61, 62; home of Hurons, 56; Cham- 
plain determines to explore, 96 ; Le Caron on, 120 ; Frenchmen refuse to 
return from. 165-160; Recollets set out for. 184; epidemic among Indians at, 
247; beauties of, 247; Iroquois route to, 275; intercourse cut off. 277; small 
allowance for missions on, 287 ; Chastlllon's embassy to, 293 ; tragedy of, 296, 
299, 302, 329. 

Germain, Charlrs, Recollet, sets out for Georgian Bay, 184 ; returns to Quebec, 184. 
Germany, punishment of witchcraft in. 425. 

Gibbons, Edvard, Major of Boston militia, entertains Druiilettes, 306, 308; friend- 
ship for La Tour. 306 307 note; introduces Druiilettes. 307; doubtful of 
allianee with Freneh. 308. 

Giffard, .Marir Louise, marriage of, 334. 

Giffard, Rohrrt, Sieur de lioauport. hunting cabin of, 180, 23.'5 ; arrival in Canada, 
233, 235 ; first seigneur of Canada. 235 ; sketch of, 235 ; seignory of, 235-230, 
318, 323; does homage. 238; at (Quebec. 238-239; pursues IroquolB. 246; 
colonizer, 264; delegate to I*>ance. 287; mem!)er of council. 'J99, 310; j^Ift to 
Jesuits, 319; In Corpus Christl procession, 321; daughter married, 334; serv- 
ant s drowned. 33S. 

GiUard'8 River, Jesuit lands on, 324. 



562 



INDEX. 



Oillert, Sir HumpJireij, inaugurator of English slave trade, 67 note. 
Qillanij Benjamin^ capture and release of, 518. 
Oillam, Zachary, sails ship to Hudson Bay, 516. 

Oitton, Jean fils, versus the Compagnie de la Baye d'Hudson, 531-532. 

OUmpses of the Monastery, 282. 

Ooa, Hindustan, influence of Jesuit college at, 473. 

Oohin, Jean, member of Compagnie du Nord, 534, 535, 536. 

Oodefroy, Jean Baptiste, Sieur de Linctot, fur trader, 169. 

Godefroy, Jean Paul, interpreter, 169; deputy to France, 279; member of council, 

299 ; envoy to New England, 310, 311. 
Godefroy, Thomas, Sieur de Normanville, interpreter, 169 ; Iroquois capture and 

return, 266-267. 

Gold, fabulous, 37 ; Cartier's, 44, 45, 47, 324 ; Champlain commissioned to seek, 

173; discovered, 324. 
Golf des Ghdteaux, early name of Gulf of St. Lawrence, 20. 
Gonzague, Louis de, patron of RecoUets, 116. 
Gorges, Sir Fernando, colony of, 156. 

Gosselin, AbM Auguste H., cited, 417 ; Life of Laval, 411 note, 419 note; St. Val- 
uer, 496 note. 
Gosselin, E., Marine Normande, cited, 69-70. 
Gouel, Robert, sells tools for New France, 70, 

Grand AlUe, length of, 291 ; bounds beaten, 328 ; in 1716, 495 note. 

" Grande Hermine," Cartier's ship, dimensions of, 25. 

Grande Madson, Eleanore de, Hurons settled on lands bought from, 338. 

Grandmont {Grand, Gant, Gand, Gan), Franqois de R^, Sieur de, burial place of, 

242 ; transfers Sillery to Jesuits, 254, 323. 
Grwpes, vines planted at Quebec, 89. 
Great Banks. See Newfoundland. 

Great Britain, obligations of under treaty of St. Germain, 221-222. Bee alto Eng- 
land. 

Great Lakes. See Lakes, Great. 

Great River. See St. Lawrence. 

Greek, sent to reconnoiter English, 183. 

Green Bay, Wis., Marquette and Joliet on, 390. 

Greslon, Adrien, Jesuit, leaves Three Rivers, 300. 

Grey Nuns. See Hospital Nuns. 

Grondines, ceded to Hotel Dieu^ 265. 

Grosse Island, free traders at, 162. 

Groseillers, Jean BapHiste, captured, 519. 

Groseilliers, Medard Ghouart, Sieur des, brings down cargo of furs, 356 ; takes 
Jesuits to Lake Superior, 356 ; connection with Radisson, 515 ; desires to open 
Hudson Bay region, 515 ; fined in Canada, 516 ; interests Boston. 516 ; sails 
with English commissioners, 516 ; patronized by Prince Rupert, 516 ; pardoned 
and employed by French, 518 ; parts from Radisson, 519. 

Growte, Moses, letter of Noel to, 51. 

Guercheville, Antoinette de Pons, Marquise de, refuses to aid de Monts, 77 ; ad- 
vised by Champlain, 91 ; refuses to aid Champlain, 95 ; influenced by Jesuits, 
111 ; sends Jesuits to New France, 171. 

Guers, Baptiste, royal commissioner, reads Champlain's commission, 141. 145; 
sent to watch rival traders, 145, 146 ; causes dissension in Quebec, 147 ; helps 
to guard haUtation, 148 ; draws up petition to the King, 153. 

Guesnier, Francois Bertin, Jesuit, teaches in Jesuit college, 470. 

Guihault, Recollet frere donne, wife of, in monastery, 464. 

Guillemot Guillaume. See Duplessis-Bochart. 

OuUiecourt, , dispatched to France for provisions, 47. 



INDEX. 



563 



Ouines, Modeate, Recollet, arrives in Canada, 127 ; meets Champlain, 130, 
Guatavus II. {Adolphus) of Sweden, alliance with Richelieu, 220. 
Guyart (Guyard), Marie de. See L Incarnation, Marie de. 
Guyot, Charles, servant to Cartier, 38. 

Habitants, designation of French farmers and settlers, first to succeed In 
farming, 178; type of houses of. 254; dissatisfied with local government, 
279-2S0 ; permitted to barter with Indians, 289 ; in the militia, 391 ; protest 
against tithes, 445, 446, 447 ; affected by brandy question, 450 ; independence 
of, 490-491 ; statue and customs of, 508-511. See also Company of Habitants. 

Habitation de Quibec, location, 78. 86-87, 117; building, 78, 86; description, 88- 
89, 103 ; repairs, 101 ; expense of maintenance, 101 ; De Monts negotiates for, 
102; occupants of, 103, 119, 161, 198. 216; Champlain at, 117, 118, 130, 148; 
enlarged, 12u, 122, 131-135; council held at, 128-129; peril of, 130; ruinous 
Btate of, 141, 161, 3 65; neglected for church buildings, 142, 174; renovations, 
145, 164, 165, 166, 175; company of De Caen demands possession, 148; to be 
supported by commercial companies, 149, 151 ; winter in, 163 ; finding of 
foundation stone, 165, 500 ; fortified to resist English, 184 ; summoned by 
Epglish, 193-194 ; keys delivered to English, 195 ; Kirlie takes possession, 
197, 198, 223 ; burned by English, 222. -See also Chateau St. Louis, Fort St. 
Louis. 

Habitations (posts), number of priests assigned to, 208. See also Quebec, Habited 
tion de la. 

Hache, Robert, Jesuit donn6, delegate to France, 287 ; New Year's gift to, 319 ; 

assigned to fisheries, 3i:l. 
Hakluyt, Richard, translator of Cartier and Roberval, 41 ; letters preserved by, 

68 ; Voyages, sole authority for early French colonization of Canada, 49. 
Halard, Isaac, delivers arms and ammunition to Champlain, 152. 
Haldimand, Sir Frederic, Governor of Canada, new chateau begvm by, 501. 
HaH, Barbe, victim of witchcraft, 425. 
Hale, Horatio, mentioned, 53. 

Hamel, Joseph, finds remains of Cartler's ship, 26. 

Hamel, Mfjr. Thomas E., " Laval University " cited, 484 note. 

'' Happy Return," ship of Hudson's Bay Company, 519, 

Harfieur, France, cod fishing industry of, 69-70 ; Champlain sails for, 73. 

Harvard, John, cited, 462. 

Harvard University , founded, 462. 

Harvey, , associate in Company of De Caen, 206, 

Havre, France, cod fishing industry of, 69-70. 

Hats, effect of fashions in on fur trade, 522 ; Huguenot makers of, driven from 

France, 523. 
Hawaii, rights of natives ignored, 7. 
Hatikins, Alfred, Picturesqur Quebec, 55 note. 

Hazeur, Franqois, house of, 510 ; in process against Gltton, 531 ; member of Com- 

pagnie du Nord, 534, 535, 536. 
Hubert, in charge of de Caen's ship, 1 62-163.. 
Hubert, Anne, marriage of. 125, 142; death of. 142. 
Hebert. Uuillauinc, house of. 141. 
Hubert, Guillernette. See Couillard, Mme. Gulllaume. 

Hebert. Louis. Sieur de ri*]splnny, sails with family for Canada, 125; oppressed 
by monopolists, 125; real estate dealings with RecoUets, 142; signs petition 
to king, 153; royal procurator, 153, 154; house of, 161, 165; successful 
farmer. 169, 178: death and burial, 178; produce of farm, 187; family of 
remains in Quebec during English occupation, 198; mentioned, 200; site of 
farm. 223; tenure <-f land. 235. 

Hubert, Mme. Louis (n(c Marie Rollet), tends dying Scotchman, 132-133; servant 



564 



INDEX. 



murdered, 180, 285 ; marries Hubon, 188-189 ; in Quebec duriog EngliaH oc- 
cupation, 223. 
Helie, , Recollet, breaks vow of poverty, 115. 

Hennepirij Louis, Recollet, events of Quebec, 119 ; his voyage to Canada, 389 ; 
antagonism to La Salle, 389. 

Henri, , servant to Mme. Hebert, murdered by Indians, 180-181, 235. 

Henricians, religious orders organized against, 114. 

nenrietta Maries queen consort of England, payment of dower made conditional 

to restoration of Frencli territory, 214-215. 
Henry (The Navigator), Prince of Portugal, 7 ; founds commercial company, 67. 
Henry III. of France, cause of assassination of, 64 ; stipulation to monopoly 

granted by, 68 ; colonizing system of, 81 ; political changes during reign of, 

201. 

Henry IV. (The Great) of France, reasons for renouncing Protestantism, 64, 201 ; 
concession to La Roche, 68, 79-80 ; fails to associate Catholics and Huguenots, 
74 ; colonizing system of, 81, 154 ; concession to De Monts, 81, 82, 83, 94, 95 ; 
presented with Indian girdle, 95 ; free trade policy of, 95 ; desires conversion 
of savages, 107 ; death of, checks Huguenot colonization, 107, 112. 

Henry VIII. of England, as leader of reform, 64. 

Henry, Alexander, Travels and Adventures cited, 523 note. 

Hermitage at Caen, sketch of. 41 1-412 ; mentioned, 428 ; influence on Seminary 

of Quebec, 480. 
Hertel, Jacques, early colonist, 169. 

Hihbins. William, Boston magistrate, favors Druillettes, 308. 

Hochalai, Indian town, location of, 34, 43 ; chief friendly to Cartier, 44 ; chief 
conspires against Cartier, 45. 

Hochelaga, Indian town on present site of Montreal, European plants found at, 
20 ; believed to be a part of Asia, 24 ; the goal of Cartier, 27 ; Indians oppose 
Cartier's quest of, 28, 56 ; Cartier enters, 31 ; names heights of Montreal, 31 ; 
Indians of Huron stock, 33, 56 ; limit of Cartier's explorations, 51, 72 ; 
relations with Stadacona, 52-53, 60 ; language of, 52-54 ; Cartier's description 
of, confirmed, 54 ; disappearance of, 54, 72 ; changes found by Champlain, 54 ; 
destroyed by Mohawk confederacy, 58, 61. See also Hurons, Iroquois, Mont- 
real. 

Hocquart, Gilles, Intendant of New France (1728-1748), 461; removes restriction 

on tobacco, 509. 
Hoganchenda, Indian town, chief of, warns Cartier, 34. 

Holland, influence of wars of, on American colonies, 17 ; colonizing schemes in 
North America, 84, 155 ; colonial policy of, 154-155 ; a spur to French col- 
onization, 205 ; encourages Huguenots, 206. See also Commercial Compa- 
nies. 

Holy Family, confraternity of, in Canada, 403 note. 

Honf eur, France, Roberval at, 42 ; De Monts fits vessels at, 77 ; Champlain and 
Pontgrav6 sail from (1610), 95; Champlain and Recollets sail from (1615), 
112; Champlain at (1618), 132; Champlain and family sail from (1620), 
140. 

Honguedo, Indian town, chief of, trusts sons to Cartier, 22-23. 
Hooker, Thomas, victim of religious intolerance, 76. 

Hope, one of three Indian girls left with Champlain, 181 ; gathering roots, 192 ; 

included in Charaplain's stipulations, 194 ; Champlain's affection for, 195 ; 

left with Mme. Couillard, 195. 
Horses, first imported into Canada, 291, 326, 380 ; rapid propagation of, 291 ; 

scarcity of, 380, 507 ; hardiness of, 509 ; manner of driving, 509. 
Httel-Dieu, endowment fund, 257 ; land granted for, 257, 265, 494 ; nurses for, 

257-258 ; establishes branch at SiUery, 269 ; chapel used as parish church. 



INDEX. 



269 ; Sillery nuns take refuge in, 282 : shelters Huron refugees. 302-303 ; 
chapel dedicated. 320; age of, 322: site of. 322, 494, 497, 498; De Mezy 
buried in cemetery, 350 ; inmates of, 464 ; destruction of, 498. 

Hospital Xuns (Hospitalers. Hospitallers, Grey Nuns, Nuns of St. Augustine), 
devotion of. 250. 263. 282-283, 408 : order and foundation of, 257-258 ; sail 
for New France. 261: at Quebec. 261, 263-264, 269, 282; at Sillery. 261-262, 
260; temporary house of, 262, 407; costume, 262 note; terrified by Iroquois, 
282; clear land, 282; tenure of land, 318, 323; friendly rivalries, 319; claim 
precedence of Ursulines. 322 ; chaplain of, 407 ; alienated by Saint Vallier, 
489 ; location and development of lands, 494, 495. See also H6tel-Dleu. 

Hospitals. See General Hospital, Hotel-Dieu, Marine Hospital. 

Hot, Louis, courcur de bois, text of contract, 536-538. 

Houel, Louis, secretary of the king, aids Champlain to establish Recollets. Ill; 

aids Recollets. 144 ; one of Hundred Associates, 207. 
Hubon, Guillaume, marries widow of Hebert, 188. 
Hiibon, Mme , Eni<lish respect property of, 195, 198. 

Hudson Bay, 96; likeness between trading posts of, and early Quebec, 103; re- 
ported to have been seen by Vignau, 109 ; importance of. 391 ; La Potherie 
on expedition to. 492 note; Jesuits detailed to watch English at, 516-517 ; war 
for possession of, 519-520 ; retained by British. See also Commercial Com- 
panies, 

Hudson River, Iroquois boundary, 56; Dutch colony on. 84, 136, 155, 245; claimed 
by English, 84 ; Canadians forbidden to travel to, 492. 

Huet, Paul, Recollet, journey to New France, 125 ; insists on surrender of mur- 
derers. 129; mission to France, 132, 141-142; angered at Pontgrav6, 150; 
takes Indian boy (Amantacha) to France, 176. 

Huguenots, colonization schemes of, 68, 106, 112; excluded from Canada, 75, 112, 
113. 160, 200, 204, 277, 381; form of worship unattractive to Indians. 107; 
predominate in early commercial companies, 113, 112, 122, 123; critical posi- 
tion of, 123 : on verge of revolt, 127 ; cause jeopardized by English repub- 
licanism, 137 ; grievances of priests against, 124, 170, 177, 198, 199 ; refuse 
to shelter Jesuits. 172 ; illiberality of. 199 ; opposed to absolutism, 202 ; clem- 
ency of Richelieu, 202. 203, 207 ; crushed by Richelieu, 2o3 ; rising of, in 
France. 206; aided by English, 210-211, 212; wanderings of, 381. 

Huguet, Pierre, witness, 538. 

Hundred Years' War. See Iroquois War. 

Eurona, linguistic aflfiuity with Iroquois, 54-55 ; Champlain's visit to towns of, 54 ; 
migration to Georgian Bay, 55, 58, GO, 61, 62; earliest home of, 56; cause of 
Iroquois hostility to, 57 ; influence of wars of, on history of New France, 58, 
90 91. 233 : hostility to Senecas. 59 ; Champlain's alliance with, 59. 60. 62, 90, 
91-93, 94. 05, 96, 97-98, 100-101 ; distrust Champlain, 109 ; adopt Brul6, 131 ; 
Champlain attempts to reconcile with Iroquois. 161 ; Frenchmen remain with, 
165-166: pursued by Iroquois. 160; at Quebec, 191-102, 228. 240. 290. 302- 
303. 338. 352. 368. 498 ; afTectlon for French, 229 : intermarriage with French 
advocated, 220, 240 ; excuse for sh.^ring trade with English. 229 ; price of 
conversion. 231. 295; war with Iroquois. 232, 233, 245, 240, 265, 267; alli- 
ance with French, 233, 268, 295; Champlain's exhortation to, 240; at Three 
Rlvprs, 245, 246. 247, 265, 300 ; epidemic among, 247, 255 ; effect of Jesuit 
teaching on. 250-251. 301-302: dislike of sedentary life. 254-255. 467-468; 
irritated at French 255 ; Montmagny sends embassy to, 255 ; represented nt 
ffte of Dauphin. 263; captured by Iroquois, 267. 275. 342, 345; open Huronla 
to Iroquois. 275-276; converts, 277, 270; Jesuit protection of resented by 
colonists. 270; Jesuits with. 2S2 ; rapture Iroquois. 283; In council, 283. 3.">0 ; 
destruction of. 293. 206. 200, 320, 330; fighting strength of, 206; as refugees. 



S66 



INDEX. 



302, 338, 342, 345, 352, 368, 498 ; Bear family join Mohawks, 345-346 ; alli- 
ance sought by Iroquois, 347. See also Fur trade, Jesuits, Recollets. 

Hutchinson, Thomas, History of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, 311. 

Hythloday, Raphael, 12. 

Iberville, Pierre le Moyne, Sieur d', captures St. John's, 391 ; expedition against 

Hudson Bay, 520. 521. 
Iceland, boundary of fishing grounds, 10. 

Illinois, Algonquin tribe, country of, explored by La Salle, 390, 395 ; allies of 
French, 395. 

India, opening of sea trade to, 7 ; success of Franciscans in. 170. 

Indians, rights of, disregarded, 7 ; sedentary tribes prepared for advent of white 
men, 20 ; captives of French, 22-23, 38, 39, 40, 42 ; alliances and wars of. in 
St. Lawrence valley, 51-62 ; language, 52-54 r oral tradition among, 60 ; rela- 
tions with North American settlers affected by French alliance with Hurons, 
90, 93-94 ; shrewd traders, 99 : first missionaries among, 116 ; citizens of 
France, 209, 377 ; more impressed by Catholic than Protestant forms, 107, 
248-249, 249 note, 307 note; in French ceremonies, 263; intermarriages with 
French encouraged, 264 ; susceptibility to religious excitement, 340-341 ; ob- 
ject to instruction, 467-468 ; secretiveness of, 515. Sec also Fur trade, Hoche- 
laga, Jesuits, Liquor traflSc, Recollets, Stadacona, also various tribes. 

Inquisition, in New Spain, 17 ; brief rule in France, 113. 

Intendants, duties of, 506-507. 

Irenee, . Capuchin, goes to France to complain of Huguenots, 169. 

Iroquois, name covering a confederation of five (later, six) tribes of Huron-Iro- 
quois stock, hatred against French, 38 : in St. Lawrence valley, 53, 54, 56 ; 
language, 53; migrations, 54-55, 56; quarrel with Algonquins, 54, 59 note; 
feud with Hurons, 56, 57. 61 ; formation of confederacy, 57 ; growth and pol- 
icy of confederacy, 57-62, 267-268; intercourse with Dutch, 84-85, 93, 177. 
286, 267-268, 275; French war on, 90, 91, 92-93. 97-98; seek alliance with 
English, 93 ; trade with English, 99 ; Champlain attempts to conciliate, 162 ; 
attack Recollet monastery, 166-167 ; defeat of, 179 ; terrorize Quebec, 180, 
266, 275, 288, 301, 326. 331, 343 ; hostility of, advances trading posts, 245 ; 
capture Hurons, 245, 275-276 ; terrorize Sillery, 254, 275, 292 ; check 
civilization, 264; check fur trade, 265, 276, 279. 356, 395; capture French- 
men, 266, 276 ; desire alliance with French, 266-267 ; terrorize Montreal, 272, 
274, 336, 337, 347, 364; threaten Fort Richelieu, 276; devastate Canada, 
276-277 ; torture priests, 282 ; captured by Hurons, 283 ; in council, 283 ; kill 
Jogues and La Lande, 285 ; burn Fort Richelieu, 288 ; captive, baptized, 292 ; 
French seek alliance with New England against, 299, 305, 309, 311; de- 
feated at Three Rivers, 300; campaign of extermination, 300, 301, 305, 335- 
338, 342-344, 347, 350, 357. 362, 364-365 ; form a buffer state between French 
and English, 312; captured by French, 348-349; checked by Dollard, 355- 
356 ; captive, saved by Jesuits, 355-356 ; fighting strength of, 361 ; Lou's XIV. 
promises aid against, 363; converts in Province of Quebec, 370 note; De 
Tracy sent against, 378 ; De Tracy makes peace with, 383 ; awed by Fron- 
tenac 394 ; campaign of La Barre against, 395 ; reduce Canada to verge of 
ruin, 395 ; De Coiircelle s expedition against, 433 ; trading policy of, 508 ; 
feared at Hudson Bay, 517 ; Iroquoian Languages, cited, 53 ; Iroquois Trail, 
cited, 56. See also Fur trade, Jesuits, Recollets, also tribes by name. 

Iroquois War (Hundred years' war), beginning of, 92, 247; devastates Canada, 
276-277, 279; renewal of, 285, 288; causes, 295; arrests immigration, 297; 
course of, 335-338, 342-344. 

Isabella of Castile, Queen of Spain, marriage of, 8. 

Island of Jamaica, Columbus at. 11. 

Island of Orleans (Isle de Bacchus), 24; Roberval and Cartler at, 49; distance 



INDEX. 



567 



from Quebec, 86 ; arrival of nuns and Jesuits at, 61 ; claimed by De Caen, 
166 ; claim of Castillon to, 264 ; offered for Indian mission, 298 ; lands of 
nuns on, 323-324; Hurons take refuge on. 330-331, 338; Iroquois descend on, 
342-343, 357, 364 ; population of, 379, 413 ; need of priests, 413. 

Island of Perd (Isle Perc6), monopoly of trade granted, 82. 

Island of St. Bernard, Desdames to land signal party at, 185. 

Island of St. CroUc, trading post on, 230. 

Island of St. Joseph. See Christian Island. 

Isle aux Coudres (Hazel Nut Island), the '•beginning of Canada," 24; boundary 

of Canada and Hochelaga, 34, 53. 
Isle aux Ruaux, Jesuit title to, 323. 
Isle de Bacchus. See Island of Orleans. 
Isle de Bonavcnture, salt sought at, 189. 
Isle de Jesus. Jesuit title to, 323. 
Isle Rouge, seals killed at, 329. 
Isle Terte, free traders at, 151. 

Italian Rtpuhlics, influence of in maritime discovery, 13. 

Italy, invasion of, obscures Cartier's discovery, 40 ; effect of Reformation In, 62. 

Jalohcrt, Marci, captain of " Petite Hermine," 31 ; sails for France, 44. 

Javiay, Denis, Recollet, Superior of missions, arrives In Canada, 111-112; leaves 
Quebec for upper St. Lawrence. 117; meets Champlain, 118, 119; return to 
France, 121, 125, 142; describes Recollet monastery, 142-143; signs petition 
to king. 153. 

James I. of England, charters London Company, 156. 

James II. of England, effect of abdication on French colonies, 396. 

James River, first colonists of. 157, 158.. 

Jamestoicn, Champlain foresees danger from. 91 ; foundhig of, 157. 
Jansenism, excluded from New France, 220, 418. 
Jansenists, attack Jesuits, 410. 

Japan (Zepango;, trade with, opened by Portugal, 7; distance from Spain, 8. 

Jesuit College, expensive grounds of, 116; chapel, 231; site. 253, 494, 498; be- 
quest TO, 253 ; scale of building, 253, 474, 475 ; gift for Indian pupils, 264 ; 
work begins in, 282 : construction of. 326, 330 ; fund for, 331 ; beginning of, 
462-463 ; suppression of. 463, 474, 476. 405 ; succeeded by Lesser Seminary 
(Petit Sfminalre). 463 ; opening of (in Quebec), 466; curriculum. 466-467, 468- 
470, 476-477 ; prominence of, 468 ; exercises at, 470-471 ; buildings, 474-476 ; 
reasons for decline of, 476 ; educational system compared with that of Semi- 
nary, 477; Laval at. 482; tuition given free, 484 note. Sec also Jesuits, 
Lesser Seminary (Petit S^mlnalre), Seminary (S^mlnaire des Missions 
EtrangC-res). 

*' Jesuit v oods," site of, 475. 

Jesuits, Inimical to Champlain, 111 ; rise of; 114 ; at Quebec, 115 ; aided by wealth, 
115, 171; supersede Recoriets. 117; Influence Champlain, 135; edit the nar- 
rative of Champlain, 163; sent to Canada, 170; qualified to hold real estate, 
171; advent In New France, 171; sail for Canada, 171-172; coldly received 
at Quebec. 172; sheltered by Recollets. 172; spirit and power of. In Canada, 
172-173; charter ship, 174, 179, 221 ; interest In fur trade, 174-175, ISO, 278, 
279, 326, 368, 478; gain possession of Huron boy, 176; strained relations 
with De Caen Company, 179; summoned to council meeting, 180-181; cap- 
tured by Klrke. 185-lHr); l)ulldlngs burned by Klrke. 191; English to protect 
property of. 195; visited by Klrke, 197; courtesy of Klrke to. 199; lands of, 
200. 2.30. 253, 322-3L'3. 478-479, 494; chosen by Rlcholieu. 204. 207, 220; 
losses by shipwreck. 221. 329; succeed to property of Recollets. 223; mis- 
sionary labors. 229-230. 249-251, 2.S2 ; Institute Indian settlement. 253-254 
(ace also SlUery) ; build hospital. 257 {see also HAtel-DIeu) ; theocratic gov- 



568 



INDEX. 



ernment, 265 ; sheltered by IJrsulines, 269 ; aid Montreal Association, 271 ; 
opposed by colonists, 279 ; revenues from Company of Habitants, 282, 286, 
287, 289 ; temporary home, 282, 316 ; troops quartered on, 284 ; in Council, 
289, 327; political aid of, 296-297, 339-340, 474; subject to arrest in New 
England, 303; methods of conversion, 807 note - characteristics, 314-315, 
408-409 ; organization, 316 ; fast and feast days, 319-320 ; hold council, 330- 
831 ; dispute with Queylus, 351, 413-415, 418 ; shelter nuns, 354 ; ransom 
captives, 355-356 ; difficulties in dealing with liquor traffic, 365-366 ; generos- 
ity to Indians, 368-369 ; policy of Talon toward, 384-385 ; relations with 
other orders, 388-389, 410 ; in western exploration, 390 ; parochial priests, 
407 ; expelled from Canada, 410 ; debarred from bishopric, 413 ; blamed for 
perfidy of converts, 433-434 ; work as educators, 462-471, 472-474, 484 note 
(see also above Jesuit College) ; order founded, 472; work in Europe, 473- 
474 ; work in the East, 473 ; banished from Louisiana, 476 ; order abolished 
in France, 476 ; decline in Canada, 476 ; unpopularity due to wealth of, 477- 
479. 

Journal des Jesuites, cited, 290, 309, 315. 341-342, 365, 413, 425, 429; 

character of, 313-314, 492 note; loss of second and third volumes, 315; 

silence on political missions, 339. 

Relations, object of, 253, 314, 438; effect of, in France, 251, 257, 409; 

cited, 256, 262, 367 ; lost in transmission, 277 ; exaggerate Indian piety, 313, 

340 ; origin, 314 note; cessation of publication, 314 note; injurious results 

of, 409; Thwaites's edition cited, 312, 367. 
Jogues, Isaac, Jesuit, martyrdom, 233, 285, 286, 326 ; capture of, 275 ; letter from, 

276 ; returns to Mohawk country, 285 ; excites fears of Indians, 286. 
John XXII., Pope, enjoins Spirituals, 113. 

Joliet, Jucherean, to take possession of River Nemiskan, 519-520. 

Joliet, Louis, sent to Lake Superior, 386 ; at Jesuit college, 471 ; sent to watch. 

English at Fort Albany, 518, 
Joliet, III., origin of name, 387. 

Joncaire, , mission to France, 482-483. 

Jonquest, Etienne, marriage of, 142. 

Jouhert, , captain of French ship, returns to France, 221. 

Jubilee, observance of, 317-318, 341-342. 
Juchereau, Noel. See Chastelets. 
Julius II., Pope, period of, 11-12. 

Kalrn, Peter, Swedish naturalist, on luxury of Quebec tables, 406, 510 ; on wealth 
of Sulpicians, 410 ; admires Canadian women, 465, 491 ; Canadian visit of, 
492 note. 

Kanibas, Algonquin tribe on Kennebec River, appeal to French, 287. 
Kebe-Kebec, Micmac name for contracted waterway, 55 note. See also Quebec. 
Kennebec River, Catholic missions on, 288 ; Druillettes on, 305, 306. 
Kieft, Wilhelm, Governor of New Netherlands, unwise policy of, 267. 
King James's War^ 17. 
Kinfj William's War^ 17. 

Kirke, Sir David, Admiral, son of Gervais, threatens Quebec, 177 ; seizes beaver 
skins, 180 ; raids Cap Tourmente, 183-184, 187 ; demands surrender of Que- 
bec, 184 ; withdraws from Quebec to meet French fleet, 185 ; captures De 
Roquemont, 185-186, 209, 211 ; captures " Le Coquin," 191 ; burned 
in effigy, 193; make second demand for surrender of Quebec, 193-194; 
sends Indian girls back to Quebec, 195; deposition of, 197, 211 note; 
at Quebec, 199; expedition against Quebec, 231 note, 212-214; restores Que- 
bec, 214, 215, 221, 528; organizes Company of Canada, 214; losses of, 215- 
217; members of expedition at Quebec, 539. 

Kirke, Oervais, expedition against French, 211 note, 213-214. 



INDEX. 



569 



Kirke, Louis, sou of Gervais, takes possession of Quebec, 107-108 ; burned in 
effigy, 193 ; agent of David, 193, 194. 195 ; takes Indian girls to Tadousac, 
3 95; courtesy to Champlain, 196; visits religious houses. 197; tolerance of, 
199 ; mutiny against, 218-219 ; godfatiier of Couillard's daughter, 219. 

Kirke, Thomas, Captain, son of Gervais, burned in effigy, 193 ; agent of David, 
193, 194-195; gives Le Bailiff charge of company's stores, 195; visits reli- 
gious houses, 197 ; conducts Champlain to England, 197 ; captures De Caen, 
198-199; inventory of company's stores, 214 note; at Quebec, 218; trading 
voyage of, 218 ; permits De Caen to trade, 218 ; accused of burning hahitation, 
222. 

Knox, John, intolerance of, 75. 

Koussenac {Kousenck, Coussinoc, Cushnoc), trading station, site of Augusta, Me., 

farmers of, 307 ; Druillettes at, 311. 
La Badaude, (Bedard), house burned, 366, 428. 

La Barre, Pierre Le Fevre de. Governor of New France (1682-1685), succeeds 
Frontenac. 395 ; poor Indian policy, 395 ; recalled, 395 ; releases English ship, 
518 ; authorizes Joliet to take possession of River Nemiskan, 519-520. 

Labor, privileges conferred upon artisans. 208 ; wages paid to servants of Jesuits, 
316. 322; work permitted on saints' days, 321; wages paid to mason, 324; 
enforced on public works, 504-505 ; craftsmen of Quebec, 507 ; rates of wages, 
511 ; wages of fur companies' employes, 175, 175 note, 521 note, 537-538. 

Labrador, early knowledge of, 19, 20, 28 ; explored by Cartler, 19, 22 ; La Roche, 
Lieutenant-Governor of, 28. 

Lac 8t. Pitrre, IroQuois at, 349. 

La Cadie. See Acadia. 

La Chaise, Francis D'Aix de, Jesuit (Tdre La Chaise), advises against brandy 
traffic. 458. 

La Chesnnye, Charles Aubert de, in conflict with revenue agent, 518-519 ; in 
action against Gitton, 531 ; interest in Compagnie du Nord, 533-534, 535, 
536. 

La Chine, Que., origin of name, 9 ; intemperance of, 451, 453. 
Lachine Rapids (Sault St. Louis), Cartier at, 0, 24, 31, 44. See also Sault St. 
Louis. 

La Croix, Cicile Richer de, Ursuline, sails for Canada. 260. 

La Danversidre, J6r6me Royer de, receives seignory of Montreal, 410. 

La Fert4, Jacques de, Abb6 de Ste. Madeleine, exonerates Jesuits, 278. 

J^a Fontaine, , punished for dueling, 321. 

Ln Grijie, . engaged in duel, 320. 

La Foricrc, Montagnals chief, warns colonists, 128. 

La }Iontan, Armand Louis de Dclondarce de, at Montreal, 400-401 ; admits ability 
of Jesuits. 433-434 ; admires Canadian women, 405, 491 ; describes Jesuit 
college. 468, 475; describes the habitant, 490-491; sketch of, 492 note; de- 
scribes fur trade, 523. 

Lairct Creek, 25; site of first European habitation, 25, 32. 

La Jonquiirc, Jacques Pierre Taffancl, Marquis de, Governor of New France 

(1749-1752), death and burial of. 356. 
La Journaye, Sieur dc, loses trading privileges, 68-69. 

Lake Champlain, derivation of name. 92; defeat of Iroquois at, 92-93; return 

from, 94; an Iroquois route, 246; first explorer of, 295. 
Lake Kric, migration of Iroquois to, 55; exploration of, 390. 
LrtA-c Huron. mlKratlfm of Ilurons to, 55; soldiers on. 284; discovery of, 295. 
Lak( MUttnisiui, 96; Albanel on. 517. 

Lake yipiHHinff, Huron line of fiight. iW ; fur trade route, 286. 
Lake of the Tuo Mountains. Champlain near, 101. 

Lake Ontario. Iroquoi.s migrate to, 55; Iroquois boundary, 56; Iroquois route, 
275 ; Champlain on. 205. 



570 



INDEX. 



Lake St. John, rendezvous of Algonquin tribes, 51 ; Albanel on, 517. 
Lake St. Peter, Cartier on, 31-32 ; Montmagny drives Iroquois from, 246 ; Iroquola 
near, 267. 

Lake Simcoe, Brul4 dispatched from, 131. 

Lake Superior, sougtit by English traveler, 270 ; sighted by Olivier, 295 ; discov- 
ery of copper on, 386 ; monopoly of fur trade given to Henry, 523 note. 

Lakes, Great, cradle of Huron-Iroquois race, 56 ; line of demarcation between 
English and French, 91 ; abandoned by France, 92 ; limit of grant to Hundred 
Associates, 208 ; iourney of Jesuits to, 233. 

Lakes, Upper, region, confused with Saguenay, French trade checked, 32, 268, 
328. 

La Lande, Jean de, Jesuit brother, accompanies Jognes, 285 ; death of, 285. 

Lalemant, Charles, Jesuit, Superior of Canadian missions (1625-1629), borrows 
carpenters to work on mission house, 174 ; on supremacy of fur trade, 174- 
175 ; baptizes Indian girl, 178 ; sends Jesuits to France, 179 ; writes to 
Champlain, 186, 201 ; shipwrecked, 221 ; arrives at Quebec, 232 ; officiates at 
burial of Champlain. 240 ; labors in Canada, 252. 

Lalemant, Gahriel, Jesuit, nephew of Charles and Jerome, martyred, 233, 300; 
leaves Three Rivers, 300. 

Lalemant, Jerome, Jesuit, Superior of Canadian missions (1645-1650, 1659-1665), 
tells of inauguration of Company of Habitants, 281 ; appointed Superior, 
284, 315 ; faith in Iroquois, 285 ; estimate of profits of fur trade, 287 ; per- 
mits Jesuits to trade, 290 ; admits weakness of French defenses, 293 ; serv- 
ant engaged by, 316 ; builds oven, 316 ; desires pay for Beauport lands, 318 ; 
observes New Year, 319 ; at Three Rivers, 324 ; objects to bonfires. 328 ; sails 
for France, 331 ; tells of typhoid among emigrants, 352-353 ; describes 
quarrel between civil and religious powers, 353, 425, 430 ; describes earth- 
quake, 366-367 ; expenses of Society of Jesus, 368 ; candidate for bishop, 413 ; 
appointed grand vicar, 415 ; pleads for liquor dealer, 427 ; death, 438 ; 
sketch of, 438-439; letter to Oliva, 469; Journal des Jesuits, 300, 313-331. 
515 ; Relations, 59 note. 

La Marche, de, letter to Ponchartrain, 485. 

Lamarck, Jean Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, Chevalier de, cited, 13 note. 
Lambert, Eustace, commands flying column, 337 ; letter from Pijart to, 414. 
La Mothe, Jacques de, fined for exceeding tariff rates, 511. 

La Mothe (Motte), Nicolas de, French officer, accompanies Champlain to Quebec, 

128; sketch of, 128; arrives at Quebec, 130; remains in Canada, 132. 
Lamy, Noel, coureur de hois, text of contract. 536-538. 

Land, feudal tenure transferred to Canada, 16-17, 234 ; effect of colonial tenure on 
French commerce, 66 ; terms of feudal cessions. 80, 237 ; tenure under Virginia 
Company, 156-157 ; terms of grant to Company of Hundred Associates, 208, 
209, 234-235, 237; grant to Martin, 223; tenure of grant to Hebert, 235; 
tenure of seigniorial grants, 236 ; abolition of seigniorial tenure, 237, 493 
note; persistence of feudal tenure in France, 237; binding force of feudal 
tenure in Canada, 238, 239 ; Teutonic allodial system of tenure, 238 ; seldom 
transferred, 239 ; grant to Bourdon, 253 ; to Jesuits, 253, 264-265, 494 ; to 
Duchesse d'Aiguillon, 257, 294; to dower Indian girls, 264; absolute grants 
of, 204 ; granted to Lauzon, 265 ; of Montreal Island, 271 ; titles to Jesuit, 
323 ; grant to Recollets, 442 ; exempt from tithes, 447 ; extent of Jesuit, 478 ; 
grant to IJrsuIines, 494. See also Commercial Companies, Feudal system. 
Jesuits, Seigneures, Seigneuries. 

Lan.d, " Height of," Albanel holds council with Indians at, 517. 

Lane, Sir Ralph, condition of Jamestown under, 91. 

Langlois, Marie, claim against Company of Hundred Associates, 225. 

Langlois, Solomon, claim against Company of Hundred Associates, 225. 



INDEX. 



571 



La yone, Joseph, Jesuit, meets Recollets with news of Kirke's departure, 184. 
Lanouillier, , Sittir, contracts for ferry, 510. 

La Peltrie, Marie Madeline de (nee de Chauvigny), Interest awakened in Canada 
missions, 2o7, 258 ; sketch of, 258-259 ; meeting with Marie de I'Incarnation, 
260; fictitious marriage of. 259, 260, 411, 420 note; sails for Canada, 261, 
411 ; arrives in Canada, 261-262; attempt to educate Indian girls unsuccess- 
ful, 262. 465 ; compared to Mile. Mance. 271 ; at Pointe aux Pizeaux, 273 ; 
house of, 282, 420 ; character, 283, 437-438 ; New Year's observances, 319 ; 
rents house to Laval, 42U-421 ; death, 437-438. 

La Place, Jacques de, Jesuit, sails for Canada, 271. 

La Potherie, Claude Charles Le Roy de, cited, 468; praises Canadians, 491; 

sketch of, 492 note; depicts Quebec, 496; describes Chateau St. Louis, 502. 
La Potherie, Jacques le Neuf de, arrives in Canada, 251 ; Governor of Three 

Rivers. 848 ; checks Iroquois. 348. 
La Ralde, Raymond de, favors Catholics, 163 ; neglects fur trade, 165 ; admiral of 

de Caen's fleet. 174; asks aid against free traders, 177; refuses passes to 

Jesuits, 179; fails to send supplies to Quebec, 182; arrives at Quebec, 224. 
La Roche Daillon, Joseph de, Recollet, sails for Canada, 172; starts for Huron 

country, 175. 

La Roche de Bretagne, Troilus de Mesgonez, Marquis de, royal concession to. 68, 

79-80, 237; failure of, 70, 79. 
La Rochefoucault de Liancourt, Due de, 77. 

La Rochelle, France, merchants of, associated with De Monts. 73; arrival of 
Champlain at, 101 : free traders of. 104. 105, 108, 110, 140-141, 151, 162 ; 
merchants reluctant to join Company of Associates, 110-111 ; merchants ob- 
tain special license. 111 ; attacked by English. 179, 211 ; siege of, 203 ; fall of, 
211 ; Montreal colonists sail from, 271 : claims diocesan rights in Canada, 
413, 415; claims Hudson Bay trade, 250-251. 

Larose (La Rose), hanged for arson, 366, 428. 

Lu Routte, French pilot, in first fight with Iroquois, 92. 

La Salle, Rrtie Robert Cavelicr, Sieur de. forestalled by Brul^, 131 ; voyage to 
Canada, 389; excites anger of Hennepin, 389; enters on western exploration, 
389-390; gains alliance of Illinois. 305; rebuilds fort Cataraqui (Frontenac), 
395, 508; evidence on brandy question. 458 note; death of, 490; trading priv- 
ileges of, 508: character, 50.S. 

La HaUe, 111., origin of name, .386-387. 

Las Cams, Bartolomi, bishop of Chiapa (Apostle of the Indians), goodness of, 
112 113. 

Lataiijuant, Gabriel, incorporator of Company of Hundred Associates. 207. 
La fcsserlc (La Tesseric), Jacques Descailhaut, Sieur de, member of council, 43.?. 
La Tour, Bcrtrand, I'Abhe de, Memoire svr la vie dc M. de Laval, cited. 443, 445. 
La Tour. Charles Amador de, friend of Gibbons. 306; sketch of. 306, 306-307 note. 
La Tour, Mtne.. defends fort. 306 ; second marriage of, 306-307 note. 
Laurentidc Range, 26. 

Lauzon, Charles dc, Sieur de Chamy, Invested with seignories of La Chine and 
Levis, 334 ; gnind maltre des raux et forAts de Nouvello France, 334 : marrii^s 
Marie Louise Ciffard, 334; (Jovernor ad interim. 335, 344. 346, 347. 34.S: 
returns to France and enters church, 335; Indian nolicy. 345-347; transfers 
office to D'AIllebf.ut. 346. 347 .348 ; returns to Canada with Laval, 408 ; In 
ecclesiastical council, 42L 

Lauzon, FranQois dr receives seipmory of La Prarle. 334; transfers seignory, 33 1. 

Lauzon. Jrnn de. Governor of Now Franop (1651-1656), Intondant of Company of 
Htindred As.soriatos. 210. 205. 333-334: estates granted to, 265. 331; grants 
Montreal Island to Montreal Association. 271. 334. 410; succeeds D'AlIlc- 
bout as Governor, 332; colonization scheme. 335, 342-343; administration of, 



572 



INDEX. 



333-334, 335-336, 343-344; informed of treachery of Hurons, 338; sends 

Jesuit to Onondagas, 339 ; sails for France, 344 ; confiscates Quebec warehouse 

of Montreal Association, 365, 493. 
Lauzon, John, fils, created grand seneschal of Nouvelle France, 334; appointed 

judge, 334 ; marriage of, 334 ; killed by Iroquois, 335, 357. 
Lauzon, Louis, receives seignory of La Citere and Gaudarville, 334 ; marries Mile. 

de Fossambault 334-335. 
La Vacherie (cow pasture), lands cleared, 322; terms of patent of, 323; passing 

of, 499. 

Laval de Montmorency, Mgr. Frangoise de, nomination due to Mazarin, 333; ar- 
rives at Quebec (1659) as titular bishop, 351, 352, 412, 415-416, 419-421; 
quarrels with D'Argenson, 353, 360, 423-424. 426, 453 ; quarrels with Queylus, 
360, 416. 417-418 ; has three men shot for selling brandy, 360, 425-426, 427 ; 
excommunicates liquor dealers, 365, 452, 453. 454 ; carries grievance to 
Louis XIV. (1662), 365, 427, 453, (1678) 458; returns to Quebec (1663), 372, 
428. 429 ; excommunicates De Mezy, 373, 430 ; letter to, from Colbert, 385 ; 
returns to Quebec as consecrated bishop (1675), 389, 394-395, 436; quarrels 
with Frontenac, 394, 395, 418, 437, 452 ; in France, 394 ; resigns bishopric 
(1685), 395; austere rule of, 400, 401-402; quarre's with Talon, 403 note; 
founds Confraternity of the Holy Family at Quebec, 403 note; letter to Propa- 
ganda, 404, 435 ; at the Hermitage of Caen, 412, 428, 431, 480 ; candidate 
of Jesuits, 416-417; delay in consecration of, 417. 436; at Indian coimcil, 
422 ; ransoms captive Iroquois, 422 ; deals with witchcraft and heresy, 425- 
426 ; quarrels with D'Avagour, 427, 437 ; quarrels with De Mezy, 428-430, 
432, 441 ; colony injured by, 432 ; value of Lalemant to, 439 ; opposed to 
Recollets, 439, 441, 444 ; preserves Canada from mendicant orders, 441, 
444 ; objects to Advent sermon, 442 ; allows Recollets to build hospital, 442 ; 
establishes Quebec Seminary, 444-445, 460, 466, 467 ; issues tithe ordinance, 
444-446 ; views on brandy trafBc, 445-446 ; sends Dudouyt to Paris to secure 
prohibition, 456 ; sends statement on liquor traffic to Louis XIV., 457 ; re- 
signs bishopric (1685), 459; forbidden to return to Canada, 459; returns to 
Canada (1688), 459-460; opens Lesser Seminary, 467-468; decides to educate 
a native clergy, 469-470 ; ordains that Cathedral Chapter shall be selected 
from Seminary, 479 ; consistent life of, 481 ; rescued from fire, 482 ; death 
of, 482, 490 ; technical school established by, 485-486 ; founds scholarships, 
486 ; memorial to Colbert on exclusion of heretics, 513. 

Laval University, erection of, 484 ; location of, 497 ; Hamel's Sketch, cited, 484 
note. 

Laverdiere, AbM C. H., authority on site of Notre Dame de la Recouvrance, 

230, 241 ; Champlain, 59 note, 134-135, 198 ; Champlain cited, 538, 539 ; 

and Casgrain, Journal des Jesuits, 314. 
L'Ancougne, Francois, coureur de tois, text of contract, 536-638. 
L'Angc, , Parisian poet, with Champlain, 109 ; cited. 109 ; at Island of Ste. 

Helen, 110; at Tadousac, 110; sails for France, 110. 
Le Baillif, , clerk of De Caen Company, put in charge of company's stores, 

195 ; accused of theft, 195. 
Le Baillif, George, Recollet, meets representatives of De Caen, 148 ; diplomatic 

mission of, 150 ; fails to mediate, 150-151 ; pays De Caen's demand, 151 ; 

carries bill of grievances from colonists to Louis XIII., 152-153. 
Le Beau, Guillaume, purchases arms and tools for New France, 70. 
Le Ber, Jacques, arrested for conspiracy, 365 ; in suit against Gitton, 531. 
Le Boesme, Louis, Jesuit brother, wounded by Mohawks, 337. 

Le Breton, Bom Guillaume, captain of the " Emerillon," significance of title of 

"Dom." 30; visits Hochelaga, 31. 
Lec, , Sieurs, directors of Compagnie de la Colonie, text of contract with, 536, 

538. 



INDEX. 



573 



Le Caron, Joseph, Recollet, arrives at Quebec, 112, 117; hastens to Grand Sault. 
117; leaves Huron village for Three Rivers, 120; returns to Quebec. 120; 
returns to France on behalf of Indians, 121 ; receives little encouragement, 
122-123, 125 ; celebrates first marriage in Canada, 125 ; insists on surrender 
of Indian murderers. 128-129 ; signs petition to king, 153 ; returns with 
Hurons, 166 ; sails for Canada, 174 ; starts for threatened mission, 183 ; 
envoy to Kirke, 194 ; favors scheme of Recollets to remain in Canada during 
English occupation, 197 ; second schoolmaster in Canada, 462. 

Lechevalier, , arrives at Quebec, 466. 

Le Clercq, Chretien, Recollet. cited, 115; describes first mass celebrated at Que- 
bec, 117; historian of Quebec, 119; deplores Huguenot influence on Indians, 
122; story of Iroquois attack on monastery, 166-167; tells of Jesuits en- 
couraged by RecoUots, 178 ; reasons given by, for delay of French to take over 
Quebec, 213 ; estimate of value of De Caen Companj'-'s beaver trade, 214 
note; describes fortifications of Chateau St. Louis, 503; Etahlissement de la 
Foy, eO. 1691, cited, 530.. 

" Le Coquin," an old ship of Champlain's fleet, repaired, 188, 190 ; Pontgravfe 
refuses command of, 190 ; sailed by Boull6, 190 ; tonnage of, 191 ; captured 
by Kirke, 191. 195. 

Le Gendre, Lucas, member of first, later of second, Company of Associates, dis- 
solves with first company, 102, 103 ; writes to Champlain, 165. 
Le Goiipil, Robert, appointed to settle claim of Cartier, 49. 
Le Groseilliers. See Groseilliers. 
Le Groux, J., signs petition to king, 153. 

L' Incarnation, Marie (Martin nee Guyart, Guyard), de, meets Mme. de la Peltrle, 
258-259, 260 ; marriage of. 259 ; leaves her son and enters a convent, 259, 
260 ; dreams of Canada, 260 ; arrives at Quebec, 261-262 ; attributes desire 
of Mohawks for religion to music of church service, 341 ; tells of Iroquois 
attack on convent, 349; of Huron girls at convent, 351-352; describes guard- 
ing of convent, 354-355 ; expresses current opinion on earthquake, 367 ; 
Superior of Ursulines, 420, 438; death of, 437-438; character of. 438; hope 
of, in founding convent, 495 ; curriculum given by, 465 ; Lettres Historiques, 
value of, 438 ; written for her son, 438 ; cited, 539. 

L'Isle, Achille, Chevalier de, pursues Iroquois, 246; sent to receive Hurons, 247; 
Knight of Malta, 295. 

Le Jeunc, Paul, .Tesuit, tells of plot against Kirke, 219; describes condition of 
Quebec after Engli.sh occupation, 222-223, 224 ; Superior of Canadian mission, 
229 ; unable to send missionaries with Hurons, 220 ; tells of austere piety 
of early days in Quebec, 231 ; method of evangelizing Hurons. 231 ; desire 
to render Indians sedentary, 231, 253; relates his experiences with Mon- 
tagnais, 233 ; delivers funeral oration of Champlain, 240 ; has charge of 
commission of temporary Governor, 244 ; returns to Quel)ec with Montmagny, 
247 ; returns to Three Rivers to treat with Hurons, 247 : selects site of mis- 
sion of SiUery (St. Joseph), 253-254; correspondence with Mme. de Combal- 
let, 257 ; inspires Mme. de la I'eltrle. 258 ; succeeded l)y Vlraont. 260 ; de- 
scribes play performed at Quebec, 260-270 ; returns to France, 270, 362-363 ; 
justifies trading by Jesuits. 278. 200 ; candidate for bishopric. 413; opens 
school after Restoration, 402; UrUitions. cited. 50 note, 210, 222. 231-232, 
233: Inflations, object of, 251-256-257, 314 note; Relations, asked to con- 
tinue, 260. 

Le Mnintrr , , Sulpiclan, killed by Iroquois. 358. 

Le Maisire, Simon, attorney for de Lanzon. 265. 

Le Mrrricr, Francis Joseph, Jesuit, meets Onondaga envoys, 338; succeeds Lale- 

mant. 438. 
Lemirc, , elected sjTidIc, 430. 



574 



INDEX. 



Lemoine, Jacques M., Fortifications et rues de QueJ)ec^ referred to, 496 note. 

Le Moyne, Simon, Jesuit, envoy to Onondagas, 338-339; welcomed by Onondagas, 
340; returns to Quebec (1654), 340, 341, (1664), 429; invites martyrdom, 
342 ; exhorts Hurons, 345 ; returns to Montreal, 347 ; with Iroquois envoys, 
349, 350 ; fifth mission to Iroquois, 358 ; secures release of French captives, 
358, 364. 

Leo X., Pope, period of, 11 ; character of, 12. 

Le Petit, Louis, captain in Carignan regiment, enters priesthood, 404. 

Le Picart, Jean, in suit against Gitton, 531 ; stockholder in Compagnie du Nord, 

534, 535, 536. 
Le Sahlon (Anse Sablon), Cartier's fleet at, 24. 

Lescarhot (L'Escarhot) , Marc, cited, 24, 32, 69, 74, 97; unreliability of, 49; preju- 
diced against Cartier, 50 ; confidence in the existence of Hochelaga, 54 ; 
authority on fur trading grant to Noei, 68-69 ; opposed to free trade, 69, 97 ; 
a skeptic, 71, 74; gives text of concession to De Monts, 81; representations 
to Henry IV., 83 ; first winter at Quebec, 89 ; Histoire de la Nouvelle France 
dedication cited, 81. 

L'Espines (Espmay). See Couillard. 

Lesser Seminary (Petit Seminaire), succeeds Jesuit college, 463, 467; early scope 
of, 467, 468 ; school for priests, 467 ; opening of, 467, 468 ; college pupils 
lodged at, 468, 470; auxiliary to Jesuit college, 467, 468, 470; prosperity 
of, 474 ; buildings and site of, 481-482 ; scale of charges at, 483 note. See 
also Jesuit College, Jesuits, Laval. 

Le Sueur, Jean, dit St. Sauveur, secular priest, arrives in Canada, 253, 407 ; chap- 
lain to Hospital nuns, 407 ; name perpetuated, 407. 

Le Tardif, Nicollet (Olivier), interpreter, signs petition to king, 153; early col- 
onist, 169 ; surrenders keys of Quebec to Kirke, 195 ; stories of discoveries 
unheeded, 295; death of, 205 note. 

Levant, commercial rights in, secured by Prance, 67, 95. 

Liegois, Jean, Jjsuit brother, arrives in Canada, 232 ; at Quebec, 316 ; confers 
with Montmagny, 326 note; killed by Iroquois, 337, 341. 

Liquor, price of brandy, 383. 458 note, 511 ; French name for whiskey, 450 ; 
wholesomeness of rum, 450 ; price of wines, 511 ; Histoire de I'eau de vie en 
Canada, cited, 451. 

Liquor trafiic with Indians, introduced by English, 252 ; opposed by Canadian 
Church, 252, 450-452, 456-457 ; causes dissension between bishop and Gov- 
ernors, 360, 365. 373 (see also Laval) ; attitude of Queylus toward, 415; con- 
sidered necessary by- traders, 450, 452-453; Iroquois chiefs petition for re- 
striction of, 450 note; appeal against, carried to France, 456, 457; council 
convened to report on, 457-458, 458 note. See also Punishments. 

" Little River." See St. Charles River. 

Livre, French money, value of, 175 note. 

Long Point, Que., lands of Hospital nuns at, 323 ; lands of Ursulines at, 323-324. 
Longueil, Charles Le Moyne (Lemoine), Sieur de. burial place of, 242. 

Longueville, , Due de, sponsor of Huron child, 176. 

Loquvn, , clerk of Company of Associates, arrives at Quebec, 130, 132. 

Lorette, Ancienne, Jesuit mission named for the famous shrine in Italy, fugitive 

Hurons colonized at, 233, 352 ; population of, 492. 
Lorette, Jeune, Indians cf, 232 ; Hurons removed to, 352; population of, 370 note. 
Louis XI. of France, destroys feudal power, 15. 

Louis XIII. of France, colonizing system of, 81, 138 ; publication of decree of, 
forbidden by Parliament of Rouen, 108 ; weakness of, 123, 201-202 ; letter to 
Company of Associates, 138 ; confirms Montmorency as viceroy, 139 ; prom- 
ises armament for Quebec, 140, 146 ; letter to Champlain, 140, 146 ; decree 
regulating trading companies, 149 ; arms furnished by, 151-152, 196-197 ; 



INDEX. 



575 



petition of colonists to, 152-153 ; grants charter to Company of Hundred 
Associates, 207-209, 210; death of, 276, 332. 

Louis XIV. (le Grand) of France, colonizing system of, SI; bad policy of, 203; 
takes over rights and privileges of Company of Hundred Associates. 227, 
376 ; birth of, celebrated at Quebec, 263 : fete of. 269 ; issues edicts for gov- 
ernment of New France (1647), 288-289, (1663) 373-374, (1675) 375; as- 
sumes control of Canada, 333, 363, 372, 375 ; promises soldiers and settlers 
for Canada, 363 ; sends commissioner to Canada, 363-364 ; abolishes Com- 
pany of West Indies, 375. 378 ; opposed to popular representation. 375 ; cre- 
ates Company of West Indies, 376-378 ; sends soldiers to Canada, 378, 380 ; 
takes measures to promote marriage, 380-381 ; indifference to commerce, 387- 
388 ; opposes exploration, 390 ; recalls Frontenac and Duchesneau, 395 ; dis- 
satisfied with La Barre. 395 ; appoints La Vallier to succeed Laval, 395 ; 
gratuity to Frontenac, 398-399 ; forbids Queylus to return to Canada, 419 ; 
Issues edict for re-establishment of Recollets, 440; grants land to RecoHets, 
442 ; regulates tithes, 447, 448 ; orders committee to act on liquor traffic. 457 ; 
infinity of details submitted to. 460 : desires institutions placed under state 
control, 466 ; desires that Indians shall be educated, 467 ; supplies apparatus 
for .Jesuit college, 469 ; gift to Seminary, 483 ; forbids Saint Vallier to re- 
turn to Canada, 488, 499 ; urges extirpation of heresy, 513 ; extract from 
letter to Compagnie de la Bale d FTudson en Canada, 532-533. 

Louise of Savoy, negotiates treaty of Cambrai, 40. 

Louisiana, Jesuits expelled from, 476. 

Louvigny, , report on corvie, 504-505. 

Loyola, lynatius, founder of Jesuit order, 30, 471 ; recognizes power of wealth, 
115, 471; inspiration of system of, 233; discipline of, 412; life and labors, 
471-473; education the great factor in system of, 472-473; fall of order due 
to education of its members. 474 ; Constitutions, 412 ; Letter on Obedience, 
412. 

Luc, , Recollet, arrives In Canada. 440. 

Luther, Martin, revolt of, 11, 114, 234 ; autocracy of, 75. 

Luynes {Luines), Charles d'Alhert, Due de. favorite of Louis XII., 123; relations 

with Richelieu, 202. 
Luzon, Bishop of. fiec Ricbelieu. 

Macart. Charles, in Compagnie du Nord, 534, 535, 536. 
Mackenzie, Alexander, report on fur trade, 522-523. 
MarjdaUn Islands, explored by ("artier, 19, 22. 
Magyujla, vicomte, map of, 20, 23-24. 

Maine, exploraticm of coast of, 77 ; failure of De Monts In. 83 ; descent of Argall 
on, 91 ; landing of Plj-mouth Company on coast of, 156; Algonquins of, 296, 
303. See also Acadia. 

Maisonneuve, Paul de Chouhedey, Sleur de, probably a member of Company of 
AssociatPS, 110; arrives at Quebec. 271, 298; urged to defer estal)lishment 
of Ville-Marle (Montreal), 272, 298; takes formal possession of Montreal. 
272, L'74 : t-ntfrtn!ncd by I'izoaux. 273; delegate to Fran.-p. 2.s7, 291-292. 29S ; 
govemcrship of New France offered to. 298 ; opposed to Jesuit influence, 340, 
409; governors of New France jealous of. 365. 453; applies to Oiler for 
priests, 4<i9. 

Maizerei, Louis Anno de, priest, arrives at Quebec, 466. 

Manre, Jeanne, arrives at Quebec, 271 ; character of, 271, 283; death of, 439. 
Manhattan. See New York. 

Manitoba, development retarded by fur companies, 524 note. 

Maniiraki, Que. Indian population of. 370 note. 

Mann, Captain Eustace, free trader, testimony of, 216. 

Marais. , arrives at Quebec, 90; In first conflict with Iroquois, 92. 



576 



INDEX. 



Marilehead, Mass., Druillettes at, 309, 

Mardi Gras (Shrove Tuesday), observances, 319, 325, 327. 

Mare Indicum, the great sea of Verrazzano, 20, 22. 

Mareul, , assigned to manage a comedy, 402 ; excites the anger of Saint Val- 

lier, 402 ; imprisoned for blasphemy, 403. 
Margaret of Austria, negotiates treaty of Cambrai, 40. 
Margry, Pierre, cited, 458 note. 

Markgerie, Francois, story of capture by Iroquois, 266-267. 
Maria (Bate des Chaleurs), Indian population of, 370 note. 
Marine Hospital, site of, 25, 322. 

Mamot, , shareholder in Compagnie du Nord, 533, 535. 

Marot, Clement, hymns of, shock Jesuits, 177. 

Marquette, Jacques, fate of narrative of explorations, 314 note; discovery of Mis- 
sissippi, 386. 
Marquette, Mich., origin of name, 387. 

Marriage, encouraged between French and Indians, 264 ; promoted by Louis XIV., 
380-381. 

Marseilles, France, Inquisition In, 113. 
MarsJialsea Court (Marechauss$e) , established, 506. 
Marsolet, Marie, attends ballet, 402. 

Marsolet, Nicolas, Sieur de St. Aignan, early colonist, 169 ; prevents embarkation 
of Indian girls, 195 ; stigmatized by Champlain, 195 ; fights under English, 
223. 

Marsolet, Mme. Nicolas, furnishes pain henit, 320. 
Martin V., Pope, modifies rules of St. Francis, 115-116. 

Martin, Abraham, dit L'Ecossais, early colonist, 169 ; remains In Canada during 
Kirke's occupation, 198, 223; farm of ("Heights of Abraham"), site of 
Battle of the " Plains," 223 ; inaugurates seal fishing, 329. 

Martin, Antoine, dit Montpellier, ballet performed at marriage of, 324. 

Martin, Claude, husband of Marie de I'lncarnation, referred to, 259. 

Martin, Claude, flls, Benedictine priest, son of Marie de I'lncarnation, 259, 438. 

Martin, Sir Henry, receives deposition of Champlain, 191, 197, 206 ; receives de- 
position of Kirke, 211 note. 

Mary II., Queen of Great Britain, 396. 

Mass, celebrated at Cartier's winter camp, 30 ; midnight, 317, 318, 331 ; lands 
granted conditional to celebration of, 323. 

Massachusetts colonies, religious intolerance in, 76 ; settlement of, 84, 158 ; French 
seek alliance with, 303 ; favor French alliance, 308, 310 ; decline French alli- 
ance, 31 1. 

Masse, Ennemond, Jesuit, Lalemant endeavors to retain in Canada, 179 ; death 

and burial of, 320. 
Mattawa River, Huron line of flight, 61. 

Mazarin, Jules, cardinal and prime minister of France, 276, 333 ; colonial policy, 
137-138. 332 ; death of, 363, 372 ; indifferent to Laval, 417. 

MazeoM, Pliilihert, coureur de hois, text of contract, 536-538. 

Mazures, , organizes flying column. 337. 

Meaux, France, Mme. De Champlain founds convent at, 167. 

Medecis, Marie de. Regent of France, 123, 201-202 ; appoints Cond6 to succeed 
Soissons, 103 ; reserves trading privileges above Quebec, 105 ; interdicts 
Huguenots, 112; retires to Blois, 123; opposed by Cond§, 124; relations with 
Richelieu, 202. 

Memhre, Zenohe, Recollet, accompanies La Salle, 389-390. 

Minard {Minard), Ren(, Jesuit, chaplain of Hospital nuns, 407. 

Menendez de Aviles, Pedro, destroyer of Huguenot colony, 244. 

Mercy of Jesus, order of. See Hospital Nuns. 



INDEX. 



577 



Merrillac, , 124. 

Merrymeeiing Bay, Drulllettes at, 306. 

MeuUeH, Jacques de, Intendaat of Canada (1682-1686), 395; buildings erected by, 
499 ; orders cargo of trading vessel to be held at Quebec, 518 ; issues card 
money, 522. 

Mexico, city, first university under royal charter bu'\, at, 462. 
Mezeray, Rent, dit Nopce, threatened by Iroquois, 349. 

Mezy, Aiiguatin de Haffray, Sieur de. Governor of Canada (1663-1665), death and 
burial of, 356. 430-431 ; succeeds Anvagour, 362, 412 ; administration of, 
372-373; excommunicated, 373, 430; at Hermitage of Caen, 412, 428, 431; 
arrives in Canada, 427, 428 ; conflict with Laval, 429-430, 445 ; reorganizes 
council, 429-43U; character of, 431-432 ; recall. 432; opposed to tithes, 445; 
appeals to Louis XIV., 445 ; opposes Sulpicians, 453. 

Mica, mistaken for gold, 45, 45 note, 324. 

Michaelmas Day, feudal observances of, 239. 

Michel, Jacques, Huguenot, harries Cap Tourmente, 183, 195. 

Michillimackincu;, trading post established at, 390 ; fur trade at, 523 note. 

Micmacs, Algonquin tribe, on St. Lawrence, 58; seek alliance with French, 287. 

Miyeon, Jean liaptistc, Sieur de Bransart, represented by widow and heirs in 
suit against Gitton, 531, 534, 535. 

Militia, enlistment of first Canadian, 274 ; defeated by Iroquois, 336 ; qualities of, 
3»3, 391-392 ; organized, 391 ; place of captains of, in church processions, 
460. See also Carignan-Sali^res regiment, Soldiers. 

Miller, John, Neir York considered and improved, 249 note. 

MUla, Roberval's, at Cap Rouge, 47 ; first at Quebec, 187 ; site of Jesuits', 322 
323. 

Mingan Islands, Cartier among, 23. 

Misaigner, Charles, .Tesult, teacher at Jesuit college, 469. 

Misron, Island of, La Kalde on, 165; colony of, trading rights reserved, 280. 
Alississippi River, said to have been discovered by Brul4, 131 ; route from Lakes 
to. discovered, 386. 

Mchawk River, valley of, possible refuge of fugitive Hurons, 55; Iroquois in 
valley of, 50 ; Dutch on, 84 ; linked to St. Lawrence, 275. 

Mohauka, in Iroquois league, 57-02; murder Dutch traders. 177; French accused 
of debauching, 249 note; French captives at villages of, 266; strength of, 
276, 301 ; at peace council. 284; epidemic among, 285-286; attempt to unite 
Hurons with league, 338-3.39. 345 ; desire peace with French, 341. 

Ifolihc, Tariufjc to be represented at Quebec. 401-403. 403 note, 498. 8cc also 
Theatricals. 

Montnignais (Algonquin tribe), aided against Iroquois by Champlaln, 90, 96-97; 
at Quebec, 94, 245; send present to Henry IV., 94; at Tadousac, 90; D'Ol- 
beau with, 119; murder rrenchmen, 126, 180; plot massacre of colonists. 
128; proceedings against, 128-130, 181; fight Iroquois, 182; Jesuits among. 
230, 2:{2, 250-251 ; seek alliance with French, 245: at Three Rivers, 246-283; 
Drulllettes as;k protection for, 308. 

Montaigne, Michel IJijqurm de, Dcs Cochrs cited. 

M'tntialm, Oozon d( fit. Vfran, Louia Joseph, Marquis de, cited, 291. 

Montngny, Charhs Ifuoiilt dc, (Jovernor of New France (1636-1648), piety of, 
241. 245; succeeds ("hampiain, 244; arrives at Quebec, 244; at Three Rivers 
245 246. 247, 2MM ; pursues Irrxjuois, 240, 1:70; fortifies Quebec, 240; at 
church festivals, 249. 1!5(} ; sends envoys to Hurons, 255; welcomes nuns. 
201; Indian appellation of. 207. 290; attacks Iroquois, 207; has play per- 
formed for Indians. 2r,0-270 ; opposed to establishment of Montreal, 271-272. 
29.S ; at Montreal. 272; builds Fort Richelieu. 274; organizes militia. 274; 
holds council with Iroquois, 283-2S4 ; sends troops to Huron country, 284; 



578 



INDEX. 



withdraws garrison from Fort Richelieu, 285-298 ; presented with a horse, 
291, 326, 32(5 note, 380 ; refuses to permit election of syndics, 291, 326 ; re- 
quested to assume control of Company of Habitants, 291 ; protects captive 
Iroquois, 292 ; encourages Hurons, 293 ; succeeded by D'Aillebout, 293, 298, 
329, 500 ; salary of, 294 ; cause of recall of, 294, 298 ; administration of, 
294-297; value of Algonquin alliance affected by, 296, 303; befriends La 
Tour, 306 note; gifts of, 316-317; punishes drunkards, 318; supplies pain 
bf^nit, 318 ; observes the New Year, 319 ; orders salute for Jesuits, 322 ; cedes 
lands to Jesuits, 323 ; sends moose meat to Jesuits, 327 ; entertained by 
Jesuits, 328 ; lights St. John's fires, 328 ; influence on social life of Quebec, 
399-400 ; buildings of, at Quebec, 500. 

Montmoremi, Henri, second due de. Admiral of France, succeeds Cond6 as viceroy 
of New France, 139 ; supports Champlain, 140 ; proclaimed at Quebec, 141 ; 
charters De Caen Company. 146; reputed land cession of, 166; transfers 
viceroyalty, 170; conspires against Richelieu, 219; execution of, 219, 224.. 

Montmorenci, falls of, 236. 

Montpellier. See Martin, Antoine. 

Montreal (Mount Royal, Ville Marie de Montreal), original country of the Iro- 
quois, 54 (see also Hochelaga) ; mentioned by Champlain, 72; founding of, 
110, 230 ; trading post, 245 ; religious community determined to found holy 
city ( Ville-Maria) at, 270-272, 273 {s,ee also Company of Montreal) ; founding 
of Villa Maria opposed, 271-272, 298 ; Maisonneuve installed as Governor, 
274 ; intercourse with Quebec established, 274 ; allowed a syndic, 281, 289, 
299, 326 ; appropriation for civil and military establishment at, 289 ; salary 
of Governor, 294, 299; terrorized by Iroquois, 275-276, 336, 337, 347, 364, 
395 ; Onondagas at, 346 ; death and burial of D'Aillebout at, 356 ; return of 
French captives to, 358 ; arrival of Dumont at, 363-364 ; population of, 364, 
379; earthquake at, 367-368; morality of, 369-370; court established at, 
374 ; peace conference at, 394, 396 ; Sulpician rule at, 400. 415 ; Queylus at, 
415 ; disorder at fur fairs at, 452-453 ; seminary of St. Sulpice at, 468, 484 ; 
church of the Recollets closed at, 489 ; port of entry, 491 ; commercial and 
ecclesiastical rival of Quebec, 493 ; source of prosperity of, 512 ; Histoire de, 
271. 

Montreal Association (Company of Montreal), establishment of, 270; character 
of, 270-271 ; Island of Montreal granted to, 271 ; Olier associate of, 272, 409 ; 
rights acquired by Sulpicians, 272, 410 ; Pizeaux desires to join, 273 ; condi- 
tions attached to grant of Montreal Island, 274 ; confined to religious func- 
tions, 280, 281 note; exempt from impost, 281 note; deputies to France 
chosen from, 292 ; store in Quebec confiscated, 493 ; character of charter 
granted to, 526. See also Maisonneuve, Sulpicians. 

Montreal, Island of, occupied by Hurons and Senecas, 56 ; granted to Sulpicians, 
271, 272, 274, 334, 410 ; Jesuit lands on, 478. 

Monts de Saintonge, Pierre Duqas, Sieur de, Huguenot, joins Chauvin's expedi- 
tion, 70, 73 ; commission, 73 ; founds Association of Huguenot merchants, 73 
{see also Company of De Monts) ; undertakes to colonize Acadia on broad 
religious principles, 73, 106, 111: settlers chosen by, 73-74; commission re- 
voked, 74 ; unable to secure the aid of Mme. de Guercheville, 77 ; abandons 
Acadia, 77, 83 ; urged by Champlain to colonize on the St. Lawrence, 77, 83, 
91 ; sends Champlain to open the St. Lawrence, 77 ; monopolies and pow- 
ers granted to, by concession of Henry IV., 81-83 ; commission canceled and 
renewed, 83, 103, 106 ; Quebec conspirators sent to, for punishment, 88 ; peti- 
tion for renevv'al of concession rejected, 95, 98 ; continues St. Lawrence 
settlements, 95 ; aided by Boull§, 99 ; encouraged to expansion by reports of 
St. Lav/rence trade, 101 ; determines to buy out Company, 101-102; obliged to 
renounce colonization schemes, 102 ; noble record of, 102 ; religion of, a bar 



INDEX. 



579 



to success, 103, lOG, 204 ; difiiculties of. in colonizing Quebec, 103, 106 ; rea- 
sons for omitting clergy in St. Lawrence colonies. 106-107 ; associated with 
De Caen Company, 124 ; Canadian colonies of, disapproved by Sully, 154 ; 
reason for failure of, to colonize, 205-206. 
Moors, driven from Spain, S. 

More, Sir Thomas, Utopia refers to discoverers of America, 12-13. 
Morel, Thomas, secular priest, imprisoned. 436, 437 ; recalled, 446. 

Morieult, Captain , arrives at Quebec, 224. 

Morrel, Captain, arrives at Quebec with colonists, 125, 126. 
Mount Desert, Argall's descent upon, 7G. 01. 

Mountain Hill, name, 228: direction, 493; houses on, 496; burial ground on, 498; 
defences, 503. 

Mountain Street (Rue de la Montagne), location of. 87, 164, 165; entrance to 

palace throush, 407, 500 note. 
MoUy, Charles de, Sieur de la Milleraye, administers oath to explorers, 21-22. 
yantes, France, claims diocesan rights over church of Canada, 413. 415. 
Vantes, France, Edict of, affected by death of Henry IV., 112; Richelieu too wise 

to revoke. 203; results of revocation, 203, 513, 523. 
Sarantsouiat, headquarters of Abenaki mission in Maine, Druillettes at, 305. 
Jfatel, Antuine, reveals conspiracy to Champlain, 87 ; fate of, 88. 
Nau, Catherine de, marriage of, 335. 

h'egabamat, Xde', Christian Indian, leads war party against Iroquois, 293 ; ac- 
companies Druillettes to New England. 3i)5. 311; returns to Quebec. 311; 
letter from, cited, 311-312; canopy bearer at Fete de Dieu, 321; at council, 
350. 

yelson River, English fort on, 517. 

Tiesle, Captain, . arrives at Quebec with GlfTard's colony, 235. 

Netherlands, effect of Reformation in, 62. 

yeufres (Neutrals). Iluron-Iroquois tribe, in western Ontario, 58. 

Kevers, France, Recollets established at, 116. 

Kew Amsterdam, events affecting early history of, 62. 

New Brunstcick, coast explored by Cartier, 19, 22 ; coast explored by Champlain, 
7^-77. 

New England, dissensions of church and state, 17, 63; events affecting early his- 
tory of, 62 ; theological Intolerance of, 64, 76 ; Pequod war in. 93 ; settled 
by religious communities, 106; coast settlement of, menaces French fur trade, 
136; example of colonists of. obnoxious to authorities of New France, 159; 
causes of antagonism to New France. 100-161 ; exclusion of Catholics from, 
compared to Canadian exclusion of Huguenots, 204-205 ; land tenure of, 238 ; 
colonists were not explorers, 247; severe religion of. 248; sentiment opposed 
to white and Indian marriages, 264 ; population of, 265, 300, 362, 381 ; Algon- 
qulns seek alliance of New France against, 287-288; expansion of, checked 
by Algonquin alliance. 206; reciprocity treaty with New France. 200, 304- 
305, 300-310; Druillettes embassy to, 303; autocracy of ministers In, 304; 
Confederation of, 3(>S. 300-310; ruthlessness toward Indians. 309; alarmed 
by French expansion. 300 ; punishment of witchcraft In, 425. 

Vevrfnundland, early knowledge of fisheries of, 10, 28, 6.'); explored by Cartier, 19. 
22 ; Increasing Importance of fisheries, 68, 60-70 ; powers granted to La Roche 
In, 70; claimed by English, 136; boundary limit of lands ceded to Company 
of Hundred .•Vssoclates, 208; granted to Alexander, 211 note; Importance of, 
3^<3. .301 ; History, cited, 36-37. 

Vev France, ecclesiastk al domination In. 17. 63; named by Cartier. 30, 47; re- 
named by Roberval. 52; Hurons In history of. 58. 62; Influence of Iroquois In 
history of. 62; absolutism In. 62-63, 161, 220-221 ; Huguenots excluded from. 
64, 204 ; bureaucratic system of, 139 ; appanage of commercial companies, 



INDEX. 



155 ; antagonism to New England, 161 ; advent of Jesuits, 171 ; list of arma- 
ment for defence of, 196-197 ; French population of, at period of Kirke's occu- 
pation, 200 ; appeals for representative government, 287 ; alliance with Algon- 
quins. 287, 288 ; receives concessions from home government, 293-294 ; devel- 
opment arrested by Montmagny, 296 ; value of Algonquin alliance to, 296 ; 
negotiations with New England for reciprocity treaty, 299, 305, 310-311 ; a 
crown colony, 372; population (1666) 379. See also Canada, Companies, 
Feudalism, Fur trade, Jesuits, Recollets. 
Neto Hartford Colony, planted by Hooker, 76. 

New Haven Colon}/, established by Davenport, 76 ; member of New England Con- 
federation, 308, 310. 

New Netherlands, narrow colonization policy of, 85, 155 ; colonists lack enterprise, 
247. 

Newport, Christopher, leaves colonists on James Island, 157. 
New Spam, monastic orders in, 17. 

New York, people and government of, 361 ; plans for conquest of, 361, 396. 

Niagara River, Iroquois boundary, 56. 

Nicholas III., Pope, modifies rules of St. Francis. 

Nicolas, , signs petition to king, 153 ; office of, 154. 

Nicolet, Gilles, secular priest, arrives in Canada. 252-253, 407. 
Nicolet, Jean, interpreter and explorer, referred to, 252, 270. 
Noel (Indian chief). See Negabamat. 
Noel, Etienne, nephew of Cartier, 44. 

Noel, Jacques, nephew of Cartier, letters by, 24, 51, 68; loses trading privileges, 
68-69, 79. 

Noel, John, grandnephew of Cartier, 51. 
Noel, Michael, grandnephew of Cartier, 51. 

Noiret (Noyrot), Phililtert, Jesuit, arrives in Canada, 174; quarrels with Caen 

and La Ralde, 179. 
Nolan, Catherine, represents Delino in Compagnie du Nord, 534, 536. 
"Nonesuch," Boston ship, reaches Hudson Bay, 516. 
Nopce. See Mezeray. 

NoremMgue (district covering part of Maine and New Brunswick), granted to 

Roberval. 41, 79. 
Normand, Etienne Jonquet, marries Ann Hamel, 125. 

Normandy, daring of fishermen of, 19, 65 ; merchants of, oppose monopolies, 95, 
98 ; settlers from, in Canada, 264 ; free traders from, 268 ; grounds of epis- 
copal claims upon Canada, 410 note. 

Norsemen, potential colonization of, 13. 

Northxcest Passage, search for, 9, 15, 270. 

Notary, position of, in Canada, 506 note. 

Notre Dame de Beauport, stream of, 236. 

Notre Dame de la Foye, Jesuit mission, Hurons removed to, 352. See also St. Foy. 

Notre Dame de la Recouverance, built by Champlain in fulfillment of vow, 230, 
240; site of, 230, 240-241, 494; burned, 231, 241, 242, 269, 420; funeral 
services of Champlain held in. 240 ; question of the tomb of Champlain in, 
241-242 ; Champlain's bequest to, 242-243 ; Montmagny inaugurated in, 245 ; 
enlarged, 252 ; nuns at, 261. 

Notre Dame de la Victoire, site of, 87, 117, 164 ; dedicated (by St. Vallier) to 
commemorate the defeat of Phipps, 398, 496 ; rededicated on Walker's defeat, 
398. 

Notre Dame de Qu€bec, register cited, 198. 

Notre Dame des Anges (Recollet), site of, 142; cornerstone laid by D'Olbeau, 142; 
description of, 142-143 ; transferred to St. Vallier, 143, 443 ; to serve as 
seminary for Indians, 143 ; gifts to, 144 ; completion of, 144 ; shelters Jesuits, 



INDEX. 



172; Beauport murder announced at, 180-181; approach of English reported 
at, 193 ; visited by the Kirkes, 197 ; devastated by English, 222-223 ; restora- 
tion and growth of, 442. 

Notre Dame dis An>jes (chapel on Jesuit residence), mentioned. 172; Beauport 
murder announced at, 180-181 ; approach of English reported at, 193 ; visited 
by the Kirkes, 197 ; Protestant minister confined in, 218-219 ; devastated by 
English, 222; polemical discussions at, 249-250; Huron pupils of. 2o4-255 ; 
burned, 269 ; road to. 291 ; heating of, 317 ; feast of St. Michael celebrated at, 
328; description of, 475-476. 

Notre Dame des Anrjes and St. Charles, population of, 379. 

Noue, Anne dc, .Jesuit, arrives in Canada. 174; complains of Huguenots, 177; ac- 
companies Br^beuf on Huron mission, 177; Lalemant desires to keep In Can- 
ada, 179. 

Nouveau, . in Company of de Caen, 206. 

Nova Scotia, French posts in, harried by English, 91 ; grant of. 211 note. 

O'DonncU, , said to have found burial place of Champlain, 240. 

Ohio, explored by La Salle, 390. 

Oka, Que., Indian population of, 370 uote. 

Olbeau, Jean d', Recollet. chosen for Canadian mission. 111 ; arrives at Quebec, 
112; site of chapel built by, 117, 223; celebrates first mass at Quebec, 117- 
118; with Montagnais, 119; at Quebec, 119, 120, 122, 130; at Three Rivers, 
120; seeks aid in France for mission, 125, 127; returns to Quebec. 127; lays 
cornerstone of convent (Notre Dame des Anges), 142. 

Olicr, Jean Jacques, priest, founds Seminary of St. Sulpice, 272, 409 ; character 
and work of, 409-410; Journ4e Chretienne, 412. 

Oliva, Jean Paul, general of Jesuits, letter to. cited, 469. 

Olive, Jean (Peter John de Oliva), founder of sub-order of Franciscans called 

Spirltuales, 113. 
Olivier. Set Le Tardif. 

Onrida Lake, boundary of Onondaga territory, 59. 

Oneidas, Iroquois tribe belonging to league, deputies from, 350 ; fighting strength 
of. 361. 

Onondagas, Iroquois tribe belonging to league, early home of, 59 ; send delegates 
to Quebec. 338, 341-342, 346; welcome Jesuits, 342; destroy Eries, 342; 
French colony settled among. 342, 343, 461 ; take Hurons from Montreal, 
346 ; escape of French colonists from, 347, 368 ; war against French, 347 ; 
ask for peace, 358; fighting strength of, 361. 

Onontio (great-mountain), Indian name for French Governors from tlie time of 
Montmagny. 267. 299. 

Orleans, Jean Baptiste Oaston, Due d', revolt of, 219. 

Ottawa River (River des Prairies), possible attempt of Cartler to ascend, 44; 
origin of Indians on, 52 ; Huron line of flight, 61 ; explored by Champlain, 
109, 118 ; renter of fur trade. 117 ; priest drowned in, 175-176; Iroquois check 
French trade on, 268; Iroquois route to, 275; temporary security of, 286; 
Infested by Iroquois. 292-293. 392. 

Ottauras, Algonquin tribe, sought by St. Malo and Rochelle traders, 108 ; Lauzon 
attempts to settle P'rench colony among, 343; Iroquois inimical to, 343; am- 
bushed by Mohawks while conducting French, 344. 

Oudiette, Nicolas, farmer of the revenue, commercial ruin of, 521. 

Oullnin, , Recollet brother, raptured by Iroquois, 166. 

Oxrn. scarcity of. 291 ; mode of harnessing, 509. 

Parault (Pascaud), .Xntoinr, witness In suit against Oltton, 532. 

Parhot. Frnnrois Virvn*. In suit against GItton, 531. 534, 535, 536. 

Paddy (Padis), WUlinm. Kennebec trader, 307, 307 note. 

Pain bfnit ( ronsecratpd broad), distribution of, 318, 401; preparation of, 320; 
provided by soldiers, 424. 



582 



INDEX. 



Palace Hill, origin of name. 499. 

Paris, France, Parliament of, confirms rights of Breton traders, 127; Kirkes 

burned in effigy at, 193 ; Archives de cited, 539. 
Pa/rkwan, Francis, referred to, 131, 522. 

Paste de chouan, Pierre, Montagnais convert, memories of, 59 note. 

Patu, , shareholder in Compagnie du Nord, 534, 535. 

Paul v.. Pope, 143. 

Peas (pease), food supply at Quebec, 182, 186, 189; method of grinding, 187; 

distribution of, 329. 
Pilerin, Philippe, secular priest, arrives in Canada, 408. 
Penn, William, schemes of federation, 525. 
Pequemains, a fabulous race, 37. 

Peqvod tear, not due to French and Indian alliance, 93 ; Connecticut in, 310 ; 

neutrality of Iroquois during, 311. 
Perc, Jean, sent to Lal^e Superior to look for copper, 386. 

Perrot, Francois Marie, Governor of Montreal, imprisoned by Frontenac, 455 ; 

violence of Frontenac due to jealousy of, 455-456 ; gains by fur trade, 523. 
Perrot, Nicolas, interpreter and explorer, gives origin of Huron-Iroquois feud, 54- 

55, 59 ; in Canada during Kirke's occupation, 198 ; sent to establish trading 

posts, 390. 

Perthuis, Francois, coureur de tois, text of contract, 336, 538. 
Petit, Captain. See Le Petit. 

" Petite Hermine," Cartier's ship, dimensions of, 25 ; finding of, 26 ; abandonment 

of, 26, 37. 
Petite RiviSre. See St. Charles River. 
Petition of Rights, signed by Charles II., 212. 
PetroJ)rusians, religious orders organized against, 114. 
Petroleum, first information given of, by Boucher. 511. 

Petuns (Tiontates, Tobacco Nation), Huron-Iroquois tribe, early home of, 58. 

Phipps, Sir William, takes Port Royal, 396 ; attempt on Quebec, 396, 397 ; re- 
treats, 397-398 ; commemoration day, in Quebec, 398 ; church of Notre Dame 
de la Vlctoire built, 398, 496 ; result of invasion, 399. 

Picart, Mme. See Garemand. 

Pijart, Claude, supersedes Poncet ,414 ; criticises Queylus, 414. 

PilUngs, James C, cited, 53. 
Pinaut, , 538. 

Pinel, Oilles, attacked by Iroquois, 337. 
Pinel, Nicolas, attacked by Iroquois, 337. 
Pinet. See Poncet. 

Piraulie (Piraul)e), Martial, writes play, 269. 
Pivert, Nicolas, early colonist, 169, 223. 

Pizeaux (Puiseaux), Pierre de, desires to join Montreal association, 278; repents 
of gift, 273. 

Plains of Abraham, origin of name, 198 ; site of, 223. 
Plaisance, Avangour advises against cession of, 362. 
Platon River, Jesuit wounded at 337. 
Plymouth, Eng., religious colonists sail from, 261. 
Plymouth, Mass., Druillettes at, 307. 

Plymouth Colony, political problems in, 63 ; theological dissensions of, 76 ; treaty 
negotiations with Quebec. 303, 308, 309-310 ; Kennebec Indians In jurisdiction 
of. 307 ; conditions of French alliance with, 311. 

Pointe Aux Alouettes, meeting of Champiain and Caen at, 150. 

Pointe Aux Lievres, Jesuit cattle farm on, 322-323. 

Pointe Aux Pizeau (Puiseaux), Maisonneuve at, 273. 

Poiton, France, fishermen from, at Great Ranks, 19-21. 



INDEX. 



583 



Polo, Marco, regarded as a myth, 7. 

Pommier, , secular priest, pronounces decree of excommunication against De 

Mezy, 430; arrives at Quebec, 466. 
Poncet, Joseph Antoine, de la Rievierc, arrives In Canada, 261-262; captured by 

Iroquois, 337 ; exchanged, 33S ; cur6 of Quebec, 414 ; removed by De Caen, 

414. 

Pontchartrain, Louis PhHypeaux, Comte de, La Marche complains to, 485; Ursu- 
lines complain to, 504. 

Ponti/yar^ ( Du Pont. Sienr de Grav6), Francois. St. Malo merchant, associated 
with Chauvin, 70. 72 ; establishes trade at Tadousac, 70, 71. 72 ; commands 
De Chaste's expedition, 72 ; joined by Champlain, 72 ; arrives at Quebec, 73 ; 
conducts De Monts's colonists to Port Koyal, 73-74 ; commands ship in De 
Monts's St. Lawrence expedition, 77 ; wounded by free traders. 78 ; at Tadou- 
sac. 78, 88, 94, 99, 101, 112. 132; at trial of conspirators, 88; tabes prisoners 
to France, 88 ; to continue fur trade, 95-96 ; accompanies Champlain to 
France, 98; near oid Hochelaga, 100; brings Recollets to Canada, 112 ; meets 
Champlain, 118, 119; at Quebec. 120, 130, 141, 162-163, 164, 179; to super- 
sede Champlain at Quebec, 136-137; sails for Canada, 137, 140; relations 
with Champlain, 137, 150; aids Recollets, 142; at Three Rivers, 145, 149; 
sails for France, 145-146. 152, 164, 178; advises Champlain, 181-182; refuses 
to sail *' Le Coquin," 100; saved humiliation of surrender, 195; embarks for 
France. 199; arrives with commercial treaty, 281. 

Popham, Sir John, colony of, 156, 

Port yelson, aid sought by Compagnle de la Baye d'Hudson against English near, 
520. 

Port Royal, Argall's descent upon. 76; attempt to maintain freedom of worship at, 
111 ; restored to France. 215; captured by Phipps. 396. 

Portugal, her maritime and commercial enterprise, 7-8 ; affected by Bull of de- 
marcation, 14. 16; colonizes Brazil. 14; northern expeditions of, 15; daring 
of fishermen from, 19-20, 65; early commercial companies of, 66-67. See also 
Commercial Companies. 

Potardi^re, , report on iron ores. 385. 

Poutrincourl, Jean de Bicncourt, Sieur de, associated with De Monts, 73, 99; 

action of rival traders against. 97 : overshadows De Monts, 102. 
Pounall, Thonxaa, Administration of the Colonics, 525 note. 
Prelatists, contentions of, 17 ; theocracy of, 304. 
Privet, Martin, house burned. 351. 
Prince Eduard Island, sighted by Cartier. 22. 
Prince Rupert's Land, origin of name. 516. 
Prince Rupert's River, Radisson and Grossellllers at, 516. 
Printing press, absence of, in Canada, 513. 

Privateers. English, instructions to, 211 note; In treaty of Suze, 212 note. 
Propaganda, cited. 479. 

Protestants, dissensions of, in New England, 76; devoid of missionary spirit, 

106-1(17; e.xclude(l from New France, 220. See also Huguenots. 
Provence, annexed to France, 15. 
Provost, , s»>lls land, 497. 

Proicse, Daniel Woodhuri/, History of Newfoundland cited. 36-37. 
Pueblos, Spanish mi.sslons among. 264. 

PuiMieux. , secretary of the king, writes to Champlain. 146, 152. 

Punishments, for theft. 47-4S. 329; for conspiracy, 88; for offence In carnival 
wet k, 231 ; for drunkards. 252. 318. 327 ; for refractory servant, 31 6 ; for sale of 
brandy, 360. 3t;5. 425-426; for robbery and arson. 366. 368. 42H ; for eating 
meat In Lent. 374 note; for practise of magic, 374 note, 425; for Irreverence. 
374 note; for bn<"holnrn. 3Sn.3si ; for binsphemy, 4<»3 ; for heresy, 425; for 
traveling to the Hudson without a permit, 41)2. 



584 



INDEX. 



Puritans, contentions of, 17; motives and development, 158-159, 204-205; liber- 
ality, 199 ; not drawn to exploration, 247 ; theocracy of, 304. 
Quartz crystals, mistaken for diamonds, 44, 45, 47, 324. 

Quebec, history of. exemplifies transition from feudalism to representative gov- 
ernment, 18; first seen by Europeans, 24 (see also Stadacona) ; founded, 51, 
78, 83, 86 ; Algonquin name superseded by Iroquois name, 55, 72, 78, 86 ; 
origin of name, 55 note; Champlain builds post at, 78 (see also Habitation 
de Quebec) ; events of 1608 at, 86-90; effect of French-Huron alliance on, 
90-91 ; Montaignais at, 94 ; in charge of Chavin, 94 ; in charge of Du Pare, 
98 ; Champlain at, 101 ; beginning of second period, 104-105 ; slow growth of, 
107, 158 ; headquarters of free trade, 110 ; Recollets at, 111-112, 115, 117, 
119, 120. 121, 130, 142; Jesuits at, 115, 172, 174, 232, 252-253, 315-316; 
topography in 1615, 117-118; arrival of colonists, 119; view of, in 1616; 
arrival of Heberts, 125; famine at (1617), 126, 130, (1627) 180-192; threat- 
ened by Indians, 128-130, 180-181, 255; death of Scotchman at, 132-133; 
Champlain to build fort at, 140 (see also Fort St. Louis) ; Champlain returns 
with family to, 141 ; a royal colony, 141, 158 ; building of RecoUet convent, 
142-143 (see also Notre Dame des Anges) ; condition in 1620. 142-143, 144- 
146; conflicting traders in, 146, 224 (see also Commercial Companies) ; peti- 
tions Louis XITL, 152-153; civil government organized, 154; stagnation of, 
162, 176-177; building at, 164-165; Mme. Champlain at, 167; events of 1624, 
177-178 ; in fear of English, 179-192 ; English fleet arrives at, 193 ; surrender 
of, 194-197, 213; families in, during Kirke's occupation, 198; Kirkes at, 199; 
abandoned by English, 214, 215, 219, 221; during Kirke's occupation, 218- 
219; in treaty of St. Germain, 221-222; condition at restoration, 222-224; 
from trading post to town, 224, 243 ; return of Champlain to. 228 ; Hurons 
at, 228-229, 245 ; chapel built in commemoration of restoration, 230-231 (see 
also Notre Dame de la Recouvrance) ; piety of. 231, 244-245; seat of feudal- 
ism, 234, 238-239, 493 note (see also Feudal system) ; social life of, 238- 
239, 301, 399-400, 401-402, 404, 405-406; burial of Champlain at, 240-241; 
fires at (1640), 241, 316, (1650) 282. (1701) 482; arrival of Montmagny, 
244-245 ; threatened by Iroquois, 246-247, 266 ; effect of arrival of fleet at, 
247-248 ; observance of church festivals, 248-249, 253. 255-256, 263, 317-318, 
319, 320, 321-322, 327, 328, 331, 341-342 ; pictured by Le Jeune, 251 ; hospital 
founded at, 257 (see also Hotel-Dieu) ; arrival of nuns at, 261-262; Ursuline 
convent at, 261, 282 ; birth of Louis XIV. celebrated, 263, 269-270 ; English 
traveler at, 270 ; arrival of Mile. Mance, 271-272 ; hospitality of, 271 ; inter- 
course with Montreal established, 274 ; terrorized by Iroquois, 275-276. 288, 
331, 336, 343, 344, 347, 350-351, 353-355, 357, 364 ; arrival of D'Aillebout at, 
277 ; opposed to trade restrictions, 280 ; allowed a syndic, 281, 289, 299, 326 ; 
revolt in, 286-287 ; Council to meet at, 289 ; Bourdon elected syndic, 291 ; 
D'Aillebout returns to, 293; fugitive Hurons at, 299, 302-303, 342. 351-352, 
368-369 ; Druillettes leaves, 305. 310 ; La Tour at. 306 ; return of Druillettes, 
31] ; winter of 3 646, 325; events of 1647, 326-327; events of 1649, 329-330; 
events of 1650, 330-331 ; under Lauzon, 335-336 ; apprehensions of Jesuit In- 
fluence in, 340; population, (1653) 342, (1666) 379, (1681) 381; Mohawk 
deputation at, 345 ; reception of D'Argenson, 348 ; captive Iroquois at. 348, 
349, 353-354, 355; arrival of Laval, 351, 419. 420, 436; frequency of fires 
in, 351 ; typhoid at, 352-353 ; French Governors buried at, 356, 431 ; census, 
(1660) 357 note, (1681) 463, 464-465, 498; Cayuga deputation at, 358: pro- 
tected by Montreal, 364 ; jealous of Montreal, 365, 493 ; earthquake at, 366- 
367 ; Onondaga deputation at. 346, 358 ; or immorality of, 369- 
370 (see also Punishments) ; Sovereign Council at, 373 ; Carignan-Sali(^res 
regiment at, 378, 379, 400, 404; from village to town, 379, 436; industrial 
activity of, 386; famous men at, 387, 507; return of Prontenac, 396; be- 



IXDEX. 



585 



sieged by Phipps, 396-39S, 501-502, 503; repulse of Phipps commemorated. 
398 {see also Notre Dame de la Victoire) ; final capture, 398 note; secular 
clergy of, 401; Tartuffe to be presentea at. 401-403; Queylus at, 416; civil 
and ecclesiastical conflict iu. 430 (me also Laval) ; tithe question in, 446 
(see also Tithes) ; brandy controversy in, 453 (see also Liquor traflBc) ; first 
seat of learning in America. 462 ; Jesuit estates in, 478 ; Laval University 
founded, 484 ; General Hospital established, 484 ; Laval's census of 1681, 
491-492; a mercantile depot, 492. 512; topography of, 493-500, 495-496 note; 
pictured by La Potherie. 496 ; occupied by Arnold, 499 ; fortifications of, 502, 
503, 504 (see also Chateau St. Louis, Fort St. Louis) ; Walker's attempt on, 
398, 504 ; " Gibraltar of America," 504 ; tradesmen at, 507 ; commercial Im- 
portance, 507-508; fire regulations, 509, 510; establishment of ferry, 510; 
customs of, 510-511; sources of prosperity, 512; card currency In, 522; ex- 
ports of, 522 ; proves verbal of conference held at. 529-532. See also Com- 
mercial companies. 

Quebec Actj cited, 449. 

Quebec, District of, courts established, 374. 

Quebec Literary and Historical iSociety, destruction of relics belonging to, 2(5. 
Quebec Palace, burned, 499 ; rebuilt, 499 ; site of, 499-500. 

Quebec, Parish of, extent. 445 ; tithes imposed on, 445-446 ; supplied by Seminary, 
4S3-484 note. 

Quebec Parish churches, 117, 223, 230. 321, 322, 327, 331; designed as a basilica, 

419-420, 494. 
Queen Anne's ^yar, 17. 

Quen, Jean, de, Jesuit, labors in Quebec, 252; journey, 327; death, 353; Superior 
of missions, 414 ; removes Poncet, 414 ; criticises Queylus, 415. 

Quentin, Claude, Jesuit, procurer of Canadian missions, delegate to France, 287; 
at Quebec, 316. 

Queylus, Gabriel, Abb6 de. Sulpician, controversy with Jesuits, 351 ; at Quebec, 
358. 416; quarrel w ith Laval, 360; removes Vignal, 408; created grand vicar, 
409-410, 413; authority recognized by Jesuits, 414; character of, 414; sues 
Jesuits, 414-415; dines with Jesuits, 415; attitude on brandy question, 415; 
leaves Quebec, 415 ; at Montreal, 415 ; represents diocesan claim of Rouen, 
416; leaves Canada, 416; returns to Montreal, 416; ordered to leave the col- 
ony, 418-419 ; parishes organized by, 421. 

Quietism, suppressed in Canada, 220, 418 ; Bernieres suspected of, 412. 

Racine, Jean, Mithridate, given at Quebec, 402. 

Radcliffe (RntcUffe) , John, arrival at Jamestown. 157. 

Radisson, Pierre Esprit, explorer and trader. 515 ; offers to open Hudson Bay 
region, 515; fined In Canada, 510; interests English, 516; patronized by 
Prince Rupert, 516 ; leads successful expedition. 516 ; pardoned and employed 
by French, 518 ; treachery to Compagnie du Nord, 519, 530 ; forbids French to 
trade with Indians. 520. 

Ragcot, Fran<;ois, witness. 538. 

Rayeot, OilUs, notary, 532. 

Raqucnau, Paul, Jesuit, leads fugitive Hurons to Quebec, 302-303; succeeds Lale- 
mant, 331; report on Jesuit college, 469; Journal dea Jesuits, 328. 

Raleigh, Sir Walter, results of colonization schemes, 84; charter granted to, 84; 
fate of colony of, 91. 

Rapin, , Provincial of RecoUets, arrives In Canada, 271. 

Ratisaon. Sec Radisson. 

Ray, Pierre, stigmatized by Champlaln. 195. 
Raymbault, Charles, Jesuit, burled I)e3i(le Champlaln, 242. 
Raymbaut, Captain . pursues Iro(iuois, 246. 

Razilly, Claude de, Seigneur de Launay, French admiral, commissioned to succor 
Quebec, 221. 



586 



INDEX. 



Recollet church, Canadian Governors buried in, 356 ; site of, 442, 443, 495, 498 ; 
conditions imposed on, by Laval, 442, 443 ; development of, 443 ; bombarded 
by English, 498 ; burning of, 498-499. 

Becollets (Reformed Fathers of St. Francis), rename the St. Croix River in honor 
of Charles des Boues, 25, 144 ; established at Quebec, 111, 115, 408 ; organiza- 
tion of order, 114, 115; hampered by poverty, 115, 170-171, 368; sketch of, 
115-117 ; unable to hold real estate yielding revenue, 115, 116, 171 ; celebrate 
first mass in Canada, 117-118; record early history of the colony, 118-120, 
133, 134, 164 ; silence regarding Champlain, 120, 133, 134, 135 ; at Quebec, 
122, 125, 130, 142-144, 163 ; in France, 122 ; CondS's gift to, 139 ; angered by 
free traders, 141 ; industry of, 142 ; site of monastery, 142 (see also Notre 
Dame des Anges) ; transfer property to Saint Vallier, 143; authorized to 
perform functions of secular clergy, 143, 407 ; furnish men to garrison fort, 
148; o.uarrel with Huguenots, 163, 170; convent attacked by Iroquois, 166- 
167 ; distrust Jesuits, 171-172 ; hospitality to Jesuits, 172 ; isolation of, 174 ; 
inspire Jesuits, 178 ; called to attend council, 180-181 ; desire to continue 
Canada mission, 184, 197 ; return to France, 186 ; to hold Indian suspects, 
190 ; apprised of descent of English, 193 ; English agree to protect property 
of, 195 ; urged by Kirke to remain in Canada, 198 ; return to France, 199, 
410 ; land under cultivation, 200 ; number in Canada, 200 ; superseded hy 
Jesuits, 207 ; turn property over to Jesuits, 223 ; fate of chapel, 230 ; desired 
by the people, 279, 439, 440 ; to offset Jesuits, 385, 489 ; oppose Jesuits, 388- 
389 ; favored by La Salle, 389-390 ; re-established in Canada, 439, 440, 441 ; 
shipwrecked, 440 ; partisans of Frontenac, 441 ; accumulate property, 442 ; 
lands granted to, 442, 495 ; restore monastery and build hospice, 442-443 ; 
religions toleration of, 443 note; Montreal church closed by Saint Vallier, 
489 ; refuse to labor on public works, 505. 

Red River Settlement, 123. 

Reformation (The), issues of, transferred to America, 62-64; cause of, abandoned 
by Henry IV., 201 ; in France, 202. 

Religion, contradictory elements of, 260. See also Roman Catholic Church, Hugue- 
nots, Jesuits, Recollets. 

Renan, Joseph Ernest, cited, 410-411. 

Rennes, France, Parliament of, refuses to incorporate Company of Morbihan, 205. 
Renouard, Marie, marries Robert Giffard, 235. 
Rensellaerwick. See Albany. 

Repentigny, , with Carignan-Sali&res regiment, 378. 

Repentigny, Pierre Le Oardeur, Sieur de, arrives in Canada, 251, 279 ; deputy to 

France, 279 ; superseded, 293 ; death of, 293 ; admiral of fleet, 316. 
Restigouche, Que., Indian population of, 370 note. 
Revue Canadienne de Montreal, 289 note. 
Reye, Pierre, signs petition to king, 153. 
Rhode Island, founding of, 76. 

Rhodes, Cecil, compared with La Salle, 508 ; company established by. 527-528. 
Ribaut (Rilmtilt), Jean, Huguenot, destruction of colony of, 68, 244. 
" Richard of Plymouth," ship of Plymouth company, 156. 

Richelieu, Armand Jean du Plessis, Cardinal, Due de, colonial policy, 123, 137-138, 
203-204, 205, 207, 220-221, 332; absolutism of, 187, 138, 201, 207; Cham- 
plain's faith in, 184-185; statecraft of, 202-208; crushes Huguenots. 203, 
211 ; injures French commerce, 203 ; excludes Huguenots from New France, 
204, 220 ; restricts trade, 204 ; uses Jesuits, 204 ; Minister of Commerce and 
Navigation, 205 ; organizes Company of Morbihan, 205 ; Viceroy of Canada, 
206; commercial policy, 206, 281, 305; alliance with Protestants, 207, 220; 
charters Company of Hundred Associates, 207, 209 ; appoints Lauzon intend- 
ant of company, 210, 333-334 ; generous to conquered Huguenots, 213 ; grants 



INDEX. 



587 



renewal of trading privileges to Caen, 218, 221, 222 ; destroys feudal power in 
France. 220 ; establishes feudalism in New France, 234, 238 ; confirms Mont- 
magny. 244 : influences Muie. de Comballet, 257 ; fort named for. 274 ; river 
named for, 274, 332 ; dfbt of Canada to, 27(5 ; death of, 276 ; organizes navy, 
332 ; rapids named for. 332. See also Commercial Companies. 

Richelieu Rapids, origin of name, 332. See also Chambiy Rapids. 

Richelieu River (Chami)ly, Riviere des Iroquois, Sorel), described by Champlain, 
72. 99 ; Indians desert at, 92 ; Champlain meets Hurons at, 97 ; Iroquois on, 
245, 246, 392, 395 ; origin of name, 274, 332. 

Ritard, . superintendent of Jesuit Estates, report of, 478. 

River Xcmifkan, .Toliet authorized to take possession of, 519-520. 

River of Canada. See St. Lawrence. 

Riviere aux .'Jtrrcs. Sec Brook St. Michel. 

Riviere de St. Charles, census of, 357 note. 

Riviire des Prairies. See Ottawa. 

Roads, site of Beauport in Cartier's day, 25 ; between Chflteau St. Louis and 
habitation, 164-165; narrowness of, 327, 327-238; between Quebec and Mont- 
real, 402-493 ; course and development of early Quebec, 495-496 note, 497- 
498 ; stairway between Lower and Upper Town, 510. 

Roherge, Denis, witness in suit against Gitton. 532. 

Roberval, Jean Franqois de la Roque, Sieur de, stimulus of expedition, 16; com- 
mission and titles of, 41; narrative of voyage, 41, 48, 40; delay in setting 
forth, 41, 42 ; to govern Cap Rouge, 43 ; meets Cartier at St. .Johns, 45 ; lands 
colonists at Cap Rouge. 46-47 ; fortifies Cap Rouge. 47 ; renames Canada, 47 ; 
severity of, 47-48 ; explores the Saguenay, 48 ; on Island of Orleans, 49 ; re- 
turns to Cap Rouge, 48, 40; inefficiency of, 40-50; failure of, 51, 68; leader 
in French colonization, 67 ; titles transferred to La Roche, 68 ; method of 
colonization too costly, 78-70. 

Robincnu, Ren€, sieur de B^cancourt, sides with habitants, 286 ; commercial treaty 
of, 356. 

Rochemonteix, Camille de, .Jesuit historian, cited on origin and object of Relations, 
314 note; gives the exercises of the .Jesuit college, 470; Les Jesuits et la 
yauvelle France au XVIIe sif'.clc, 460. 

Rogation Sunday, observance of, 328. 

Rohault, Rene, Jesuit novice, bequest of, to Jesuits, 253. 
Rolfe, John, marriage of, 176. 

Roman Catholic Church, political influence of, 11-12; arrogatlon exemplified by 
Bull of Alexander VI., 14; pretensions of, assprted in New France, 17; cele- 
bration of Ma.ss, 30. 33. 323; observances of fasts and festivals. 38, 317-318, 
310-320, 321-322, 325, 327. 328, 341-342, 374 note, 415, 426; factor in French 
exploration. 30; issues created by European revolt against. 62-64; effect upon 
orders of schisms in. 114; causes of failure In Canada, 200; attractive and 
enduring qualities of, 248-240; opposed to liquor trafllc, 252 (see also 
Liquor traffic); sanctions marriages between French and Indians, 264; as- 
sumes pollllcal supremacy. 304; organized at Quebec, 351 (see also Laval) ; 
rivalry of orders In, 388 ; effect on Canada of revival in, 408-410; controversy 
over bishopric of Canada, 436 (see also Laval) ; wealth of orders a 
cause of popular discontent, 478, 470 ; parochial system of, 480. Bee also 
Canada, Church of, also Jesuits, Recollets. 

Roquemont , Claude de, one of Iltjndred Associates, endeavors to relieve Quebec, 
IK.'^; captured by KIrke, 1^5-1^6, 200, 211 ; news of his defeat In Paris. 103; 
sends to Quebec to reconnoitre, 2oi ; Incorporator of Company of Hundred 
Associates. 207; signs charter. 200; commands fleet, 211. 

Roufn, France, colonists from prisons of, 41, 42; fishing Industry of. 60-70; mer- 
chants In commercial associations, 73, 108, 111, 127, 200; Champlain and 



588 



INDEX. 



Pontgrave at, 95 ; action of parliament of, on king's decree, 108-109, 124 ; 
Champlain enters protest at, 138 ; baptism of Huron convert at, 176 ; claims 
episcopal jurisdiction over Canada, 410. 410 note, 436 ; diocesan claims rep- 
resented by Queylus, 413, 416: opposes Laval, 417, Archives of, 70. 

Rourmer, , sails for France, 145 ; bearer of letters to Champlain, 149. 

Roussillon, annexed to France, 15. 

Routier, Guillaume, captured by Iroquois, 353. 

Roxbury, Mass., Druillettes at. 307-308. 

Roycroft, Thomas, testimony of, 216. 

Roy's Bulletin, cited, 370 note. 

Royeye, , Sieur de, left in charge of colony at Cap Rouge, 48. 

Rue d'Aiguillon, origin of name, 332-333 ; highway to Recollet monastery, 332-333, 
498. 

Rue sous le Fort, site of habitation, 164 ; in 1716, 496 note. 

Rupert, Prince, fits expedition for Hudson Bay, 516; Governor of Hudson Bay 

Company, 516; region named for, 516. 
Rysicick, peace of, established, 399. 
Sahle Island, La Roche's colony on, 70.. 

Sagard {Theodat), Gabriel, Recollet missionary and historian, on sectarian quar- 
rels, 74 ; describes habitation, 89 ; historical limitations, 118-119, 133 ; pic- 
tures early Quebec, 119-133 ; ignores Champlain, 134, 135 ; text of Canadian 
bill of grievances, 152, 153 ; arrives in Canada, 164 ; disapproves of French- 
men adopting Indian customs, 166 ; ignores Mme. De Champlain, 167 ; visits 
France to complain of Huguenots, 169-170; reasons given by, for failure of 
Recollets in Canada, 170 ; distrusts .Jesuits, 171, 172 ; narrovs^ views of, 174 ; 
excites fears of colonists, 182-183 ; tonnage of *' Le Coquin," 191 ; virtues of 
Solomon seal, 191 ; on preservation of church property, 198 ; holds Huguenots 
responsible for loss of De Caen's ship, 198-199 ; Histoire de Canada, 134, 135, 
164. 

Saguenay region, confused with Upper Lake, 32 ; fabulous treasures of, 37 ; 
sought by Roberval, 48 ; sought by Champlain, 99-100 ; difficulty of protecting 
fur trade of, 26S. 

Saguenay River, Cartier at, 24, 44, 68 ; fur trade of, 51, 68, 70, 99, 117 ; explored 

by Champlain, 78 ; northwest passage sought through, 270. 
Sailors, Indian trade of French, 51 ; daring of French, 65 ; social status of, 328. 
" Saint Andre," Plague stricken vessel, 352, 353. 
Saint Angel, letter of Columbus to, 9 note. 

Ste. Angele (Angela Mericl of Brescia), founds Order of Ursulines, 258. See also 
TJrsulines. 

"Ste. Anne," vessel sent against English at Hudson Bay, 518; cargo levied on, 
518. 

Ste. Anne de Beaupre, parish organized, 421 ; church built, 421. 
Ste. Anne de la Perade River, Champlain meets Indians at, 90. 
St. Barnabe (Barnabas), labor permitted on fete of, 321. 
St. Bartholemew, massacre of, 113. 
St. Benoit, priests of order of, entitled " Dom," 30. 

St. Bernard, Anne (le Cointre) de. Hospital nun, character of, 258; arrival In 
Canada, 261-262. 

St. Bernard, Marie de la Troche de (St. Joseph, Marie de Savonnier de la Troche 

de), Ursuline, chosen for Canada mission. 260. 
St. Beuve, Madeline de, influence on Ursulines, 258. 

St. Bonaventure de Jesus, Marie (Forestier) de. Hospital nun, character of, 258 ; 

arrival in Canada, 261 262. 
St. Charles River (St. Croix, Little River, La Petite Riviere), Cartier winters on, 

24-25, 35, 87. 89, 174 ; named St. Croix, 24-25, 144 ; renamed St. Charles, 25, 



INDEX. 



144; topography of. 25-26. 35. 87; called La Petite Riviere (Little River), 
87, 142. 143, 172; Indians at. 88; Recoliet monastery on, 141, 142, 178 
also Notre Dame des Anges) ; Iroquois on, 166-167; Jesuit mission on, 174, 
177, 178 (set' a/.**o Notre Dame des Anges) ; Kirke's emissaries on, 184; Hos- 
pital nuns on, 261 ; Ursulines on, 261. 
8t. Croix River. See St. Charles. 

8t. Dominie (de Guzman), death of, 113. See also Dominicans. 
"St. Etienne/' vessel from Honfleur with Recollets. 112. 

Sainte Foy, Louis (Amantache) de, Huron convert, struggle for possession of, 

176 ; baptism of. 176. 
Bt. Foy. Maisonneuve and Montmagny at, 273; boat building at, 273; Hurons 

established at, 498. -Sec also Notre Dame de la Foye. 
St. Franrii d'Assisi, character of, 112; death of, 113. See also Franciscans, 

Recollets. 

8t. Francis Xavier, instructions to missionaries cited, 314 note; images of, 319; 

founds Hindustan mission, 473. See also Jesuits. 
Bt. Oermain-en-Laye. France, treaty of, 212 note, 219. 221-222. 
Bte. Helen, Island of, origin of name of name, 110. 
" Ste. HiUne," vessel to be returned by English. 222 

St. Tpnace, Marie (Guenet) de, Hospital nun, character of, 258 ; arrival In Canada, 
261-262. 

St. Ignace, Huron mission, destroyed by Iroquois, 300. 
Bt. Ignatius, images of, 319. 

Bt. Jean, Huron mission, destroyed by Iroquois, 301. 
" Bt. Jean," vessel«of Champlain's fleet, 228. 
Bt. Jean Ftnm^ois, Que., population of, 379. 

Baint Joachim, technical school at, 486, 486 note; Laval at, 481, 486; scholarship 
founded. 480. 

St. John of Malta (earlier St. John of Jerusalem), Montmagny knight of order of, 

244. 50i» ; Noel de Sillery, knight of, 253 : cross of, 500. 
St. John the BaptUtt. bonfires at festival of, 328. 
Bt. John's. N. F., Roberval's fleet at, 45 ; Iberville's capture of, 391. 
Bt. Joseph (patron saint of Canada), festival of. 248-249, 253. 
Bt. Joseph, mission of. See Sillery. 

"St. Joseph." vessel, sails from Dieppe, 260-261; compared to "Mayflower," 261. 
Bt. Lairrcnce, Gulf of (Coif des Chateaux), not discerned by Cabots or Cortereals, 

15; entered hy fishermen. 19 : supposed to be the Man: Indicum, 20-21. 22; 

Indians of. 52, 54 ; Klrke and De Roquemont in, 209 ; poachers In, 268 ; Deny's 

map, 19. 

Bt. Laurence River (Great River, River of Canada), supposed route to Asia, 9, 
105; Cartler on, 9, 20, 23, 30-31, 34-35, 37, 40-41, 51 ; topography of. 30-31, 
35 • Indians of, harass colonists, 46 ; Roberval on, 46. 51 ; Indian annals of, 
51-62 (see also Hochelaga, Hurons, Iroquois, Stadacona) ; French traders on, 
68. 82. 83, 95 ; described by Champlain. 72-73 ; De Monts' monopoly on. 82. 
83, 95, infj; boundary between English and French, 91; abandoned by 
French. 92: free trade on. 95, 98-99. Iu2-103, 104. 105. 121. 127. 140-141. 
177. 305; Recollets in villages on, 116-117; Indians of. war on Iroquois. 179; 
region of. granted to Company of H)indr<vl Associat<^. 20.9 ; trading privileges 
of. 218. 221 ; Iroqpols route. 175. See also (Companies, Fur trade. 

Bt. Louis, Huron mission, destroyed by Iroquois, 300. 

Bt. Louis, suburb of, 499. 

8t. LusMon, Simon Fran<:ois Dnumont, Sleur de, sent to efita!)llsh trading posts. 
390. 

8t. Malo. France, voyages of flshermen of. 10-20; Cartler s.iils from, 21 22, 24. 42; 
Cartler returns to. 22, 39 ; remains of Cartier's ship in museum at, 26 ; 



590 



INDEX. 



Indians baptized at, 40 ; merchants of, oppose trade monopolies, 69, 83, 97, 
102, 108-109 ; claim right to St. Lawrence trade through Cartier, 102-103 ; 
enterprise of traders of, 104, 105. 108, 109. See also Commercial Companies. 

Ste. Marie, Jeanne (Suppli) de, Hospital nun, death of, 269. 

Bt. Mark, feast of, 327-328. 

Bt. Martin, , instructor at Jesuit College, 469. 

aS*. Mary, Huron mission, refugees from, 302. 

St. Maurice River, 44, 48; explored by Cartier, 32; desired route of Champlain, 
99 ; trade center, 117 ; Jesuit lands on, 232 ; ores of, 385. See also Three 
Rivers. 

St. Michael, feast of, 328. 

St. Michel Brook, Cartier at, 24-25 : description of, 25-26. 

Bt. Nicholas Harbor, Cartier at, 23, 

Bt. Paul street, 86, 496 note. 

St. Peter street, 86, 496 note. 

" St. Pierre," vessel of Champlain's fleet, 228. 

" Bt. Pierre/' vessel sent against English at Hudson Bay, 518 ; cargo levied on, 
518. 

Bt. Pierre, Ashing sloop from, used to transport Recollets. 
Bt. Pierre du Lac, Que., Indian population of, 370 note. 
Bt. Regis, Que., Indian population of, 370 note. 
Bt. Roach, suburb of, 25 ; origin of, 499. 
Bt. Sauveur, suburb of, origin of name, 407. 

Bt. Sauveur de Thury, parish in Normandy, Le Sueur from, 253. 

Saint Simon, Louis de Rourroi, Due de, disparages Prontenac, 405, 456. 

Bt. Stanislas street, site of " Jesuit Woods," 475. 

Bt. Sulpice, Seminary of, at Paris, founded, 272 ; tribute to, 410-411 ; Montreal 
branch, equipment of, 468. See also Sulpicians. 

Bt. Terre, , sent to France for supplies, 47. 

Bt. Therese, Hudson Bay post, seized by French, 518. 
Bt. Urhain, Que., Indian population of, 370 note. 
Ste. Ursula, patroness of Ursulines, 258. 

Baint Vallier, Jean Baptiste, Bishop of Canada, Recollets transfer property to, 
143, 443 ; appointed bishop. 395 ; builds church, 398 ; opposes presentation of 
Tartuffe, 402-403 ; objects to freedom of Canadian manners, 405 ; encourages 
monks, 444 ; takes charge of clergy fund, 448 ; opposed to powers of Seminary, 
479 ; introduces classical course into Farm school, 486 ; a prisoner, 487 ; op- 
poses Laval, 487 ; impressions of Canada, 487-488 ; sails for France, 488 ; 
captured by English, 488, 509 ; quarrels and character of. 488-499. 

Bt. Vincent de Paul, director of Duchess d'Aiguillon, 257 ; influence on Mme. de 
la Peltrie, 259. 

Salem, Mass., Druillettes at, 309. 

" Salemande," vessel of Company of Associates, 148. 

Balieres, Henri de Ghapelas, Sieur de, colonel of Carignan regiment, arrives In 

Canada, 378. 
San Domingo, discovery of, 8. 

Sand/ys, Sir Edwin, charter obtained by, for Plymouth Company, 157. 
" Santa Maria," vessel of Columbus's fleet, dimensions of, 25. 

Saniein, , agent of Company of De Caen, arrives at Quebec, 162. 

Satadin, Indian tribe, location of village, 34 ; conspire against Donnecana, 38. 
Bault St. Louis (Grand Sault), Champlain at, 109, 110; fur trade of, 110, 121; 

Hurons at, 120 ; Iroquois capture Recollet at, 166. Bee also Lachine Rapids. 
Bault de Ste. Marie, Nicolet at, 270 ; post established at, 390. 
Bavignon, Huron lad, trusted to Champlain, 100. 
8a/vonarola, Jerome, self-sacrifice of, 11. 



INDEX. 



Scandinavia, effect of Reformation in, G2. 

Schuyler, John, envoy from Albany, entertained by Frontenac, 399. 
Scotchman, death of, at Quebec, 132-133, 152. 
Scotland, effect of Reformation in, 62. 

Scurvy {mal de terre), among Cartier*s colonists, 29-30, 36; among Roberval'S 

colonists, 47 ; at Quebec, 89-90, 126; at Three Rivers, 240. 
Seal fishing, inaugurated, 329. 

Secular clergy, functions of. 143 ; oppose encroachment, 388 ; of Montreal, 400- 
401; of Quebec, 401, 407-4i»S; popular affection for, 412, 444; leave Jesuit 
quarters, 429 ; jealous of monastic orders, 443-444 ; seminary established for, 
444 ; popular feeling against, 446 ; tithes payable to, 447 ; provisions for 
support of, 447-448, 448 note, 478-470: parochial system of, 489; incor- 
ruptib lity of, 505. See also Jesuits, Recollets. Roman Catholic Church. 

See of Rome. See Roman Catholic Church. 

Seignelay, , Marquis de. French secretary of state, creates clergy fund, 448. 

Seigneures, importance of under feudal system, 233-234, 239 ; position of Governor 
of Canada among, i-34, 230. 237 ; duties of, 235, 264 ; relation of ccnsitaircs 
to, 235, 236-237, 230 ; homage paid by. 230. 237, 238 ; fail as colonists. 238, 
265 ; rights of, conferred on members of commercial company, 377. See also 
Feudal system. Land. 

Seigneuries, a holding under feudal tenure, 80, 237 ; of Notre Dame des Anges, 
172; Giffard's (of Beauport). 235-236, 238; tenure of. 236; abolition of ten- 
ure, 237, 493 note; granted prior to 1640. 264; of Beaupr(i granted to Chef- 
fault, 264 ; of Diichesse d'Aiguillon, 265 ; of Godefroy, 266 ; I.auzon, 265, 334 ; 
Montreal Island, 271, 3.34, 410. 453: La Citiere. 334; Gaudarville (Godar- 
ville), 334; La Prairie, 334. 478; Chine. 334; Levis, 334; held by Jesuits, 
478. See also Commercial Companies, Feudal system, Jesuits, Land, Sul- 
piclans. 

" Seine," vessel captured by English. 509. 

Selkirk, Thomas Douglas, fifth earl of, opposed by Hudson Bay Company, 123. 

Seminaries. See Lesser Seminary (Tetit Seminaire), Seminary (SSminaire des 
Missions Etrang^^res), St. Sulpice. Seminary of. 

Seminary (S6mlnaire des Missions Etrang^res), site of garden, 223, 495, 497; 
established, 444, 466 ; tithes imposed for support, 444-448 ; census of inmates, 
463-464 ; purpose of, 466 ; curriculum, 46(5 ; educational system compared 
with that of Jesuit college, 477 ; Cathedral chapter to be selected from. 479, 
483-484 note; to control parish priests, 479, 483-484 note; loyalty of stu- 
dents, 479-480; constitution of, 480; Laval's gifts to, 481. 483; documents 
In, 481; buildings and site of. 4.S1-4S2. 494. 497, 498; destroyed i)y lire 
(1701), 482; second fire at, 482-483: revenues of, 483; scale of ch-argps at, 
48S note; builds Laval TTniversity, 484; prosperity of. 484-485; criticism on 
wealth of, 485; technical srhool established, 485-487 (sec also St. Jojichim) ; 
Incorruptibility of priests, 505. 

Benccas, fifth nation of Iroquois league, drive Ilurons from St. Lawrence valley, 
56, 58; occupy Island of Montreal, 56; descendants of Stadacona Indians, 
66, 58; join Iroquois consolidation. 58-59, »>0 ; Huron hatred of. .59; attack 
Huron town. 285; fighting strength of, 361 ; hostility to Illinois, 305. 

Btntchausst, rmplaremmt ilr la, granted for Rorollet church, 442. 

Sennetain , , dr, commandant at Fort Richelieu, absent from post, 315. 

Bcvtn Islands. Cartler at. 23. 

Sctcatrt, Charlis, daughter married, 324. 

Sczart, Jean, dit Gardelet. roureur de bois, text of contract, 536-538. 
Shnfti Hhury, Anthony AnhUy Cooper, Earl of, ability, 363. 
Shipbuilding at Cap Rouge, 48; at Quebec, 103; encouraged by Talon, 385. 
Short, Robert, drawing of, 407 note. 



592 



INDEX. 



Sillery, Noel Brulard, Chevalier de, founds mission of Sillery, 253-254. 

Sillery (St. Joseph), Jesuit mission, first settlement for sedentary Indians, 253, 

254; sketch of, 253-254; nuns visit, 261-262; Indians pursue Iroquois, 267; 

hospital established at, 269 ; growth of, 269 ; terrorized by Iroquois, 275. 292 ; 

hospita? nuns retreat from, 282 ; Indians of, killed, 285 ; fur trade ethics at, 

290, 326 ; road to, 291 ; inefficiency of defenders of, 293 ; Jesuits at, 315 ; 

Indians of, at church f§te, 317 ; site of old chapel at, 320 note; conditions of 

grant to, 323 ; fortifications begun, 330 ; defenseless state of, 336 ; population 

of, 357 note, 379. 
Silvy, Antoine, instructor at Jesuit college, 469. 
Sisters of the Congregation, work of, in Canada, 408. 
Six nations. See Iroquois. 

Skandahietsi, Louis, Iroquois spy, punishment of, 381. 
Smith, John, saves Jamestown colony, 157. 
Smith, William, History of Canada, 315. 
Smithsonian Institution, Bulletin, 53. 

Soissons, Charles de Bourhon, Comte de, death of, 103 ; governori^ip of New 
France transferred to Conde, 103, 104 ; powers conferred on Champlain by, 
104-105, 137 ; political status of, 107 ; religion of. 111. 

Sokoquiois (Sokokis), Algonquin tribe, kill Christian Indians, 285. 

Soldiers, in Huron country, 284 ; revenue for maintenance of, 289, 294 ; duel be- 
tween, 320-321 ; salute Jesuits, 322 ; social status of, 328 ; punished for sac- 
rilege, 374 note; number sent to Canada, 392. See also Carignan-Salieres 
regiment. Militia. 

Soliman II. ("the Magnificent"), sultan of Turkey, alliance with Francis I., 16. 

Solomon's Seal, properties of, 191. 

Sorhonne, pronounces against liquor traffic, 452. 

Sorel, Pierre de, captain in Carignan regiment, arrives in Canada, 378. 
Souart, Oahriel, Sulpician, cure of parish of Quebec, 422 ; assists at Recollet cere- 
mony, 442. 

Soumande, , seminarist, founds scholarship and endows Farm school, 486, 

487. 

Soumande, Pierre, Sieur Delorme, sent to represent the Compagnie de la Baye 
d'Hudson in France, 519, 530 ; in suit against Gitton, 531. 

South America, commerce of, secured by Portugal, 67 ; Recollets in, 116. 

Spain, rival of Portugal, 7, 8 ; effect of aggrandizement of, 8, 10 ; first colonizer 
of America, 13-14 ; lands alloted to, by papal Bull, 14, 68 ; rebellious colonies 
of, aided by English, 17 ; voyages of fishermen of, 19 ; growth and commerce 
of, feared by France, 39-40 ; effect of Reformation in, 62 ; absolutism of, 62- 
63 ; early commercial companies of, 66-67 ; English hatred of. a factor in 
colonizing, 156, 159 ; traders of, in French waters, 162 ; opposed by Riche- 
lieu, 220; feared in Canada, 244; limits of war of reprisal, 310. See also 
New Spain. 

Spirituals, sub-order of Franciscans, 113. 

Stadacona, Indian town (later Quebec), located by Cartier's captives, 23; first 
seen by Europeans, 24 ; Cartier at, 32, 42 ; described, 34, 52 ; disease in, 36 ; 
hostile gathering at, 45 ; in alliance against French, 52 ; Champlain at, 55 ; 
known as Quebec, 55, 55 note; site of, 87. See also Quebec. 

Stadacona Indians, cultivate European plants, 20 ; oppose Cartier, 28, 37, 46, 56- 
57 ; manners and customs of, 32-33 ; Cartier's professions to, 38 ; sedentary 
and wandering, 52; relations with Iroquois, 54, 56, 58, 60; relations with 
Hurons, 57, 58, 60. See also Hurons, Iroquois, Quebec. 

Sternatas, Indian tribe, village of, 34. 

Stuart, Sir James, capture of, 221. 



INDEX. 



593 



SuUy, Maximilian de Bcthune, Due de, disapproves of the colonization ot Canada, 
154. 

SulpicianSj religious order, acquire rights of Montreal Company, 272, 410 ; acquire 
Island of Montreal, 272. 410, 455. 520 ; to be used against Jesuits, 385 ; 
Jesuits jealous of, 388 ; austerity of, 400-401 ; arrival in Canada, 408 ; wealth 
of, 410 ; survival of, 410 ; opposed by De Mezy, 453 ; Seminary of, at Mont- 
real, 468. See also St. Sulpice. 

Suite, Benjamin, cited, 297, 342, 410, 413. 

Suze, treaty of, 212, 212 note. 

Swedes, French alliance with, 244. 

Syndic, length of term of office of, 289 ; privileges of, 289. 294, 299 ; election of, 
291 ; appointment of, known at Quebec, 326 ; Louis XIV. desires suppression 
of, 375 ; suppressed by D'Avangour, 428. 

Tadousac, center of Indian trade. 51, 105 ; trading post established, 70 ; Pont- 
grave at, 70, 90. 101: excessive cold of, 71; fur trade of, 72, 73, 100, 175, 
229. 328; Champlain at, 77, 90. 94, 90 99, 101, 109, 110, 128, 140, 150; 
poachers at. 77-78, 96, 99; monopoly of trade of, granted to De Monts, 82; 
criminals taken to, 87 ; expense of port at, 101 ; free trade at, 105 ; L'Ange 
at, 110 , arrival of Recollets at, 112 ; better supplied than Quebec, 112 ; ar- 
rival of Morrel's ship at, 125; Pontgravt- seeks supplies at. 132, 146; prin- 
cipal port of New France, 140 ; Pontgravt leaves ship at, 149. 150, 151 ; De 
Caen at. 150, 152; religious (juarrels at, 162, 177; trading company's em- 
ployees at, 175; Kirke's fleet at, 183, 185, 195; Kirkes remove from, 218; 
arrival of ship "St. Joseph" at, 261; English explorer at, 270; present of 
fish from, 324 ; Iroquois descend on, 357 ; post abandoned, 357 ; Le Caron 
opens school at, 402 ; Albanel starts for Hudson Bay from, 516. See also 
Commercial Companies, Fur trade. 

TGffo.ncl. Sec La JonquiC-re. 

Taifjnoagny. name of Indian lad captured by Cartier, 23; guides Cartier, 27; 
sketch of, 27-28 ; warn Indians against Cartier, 28 ; refuses to accompany 
Cartier, 29 ; visits Cartier, 32 ; negotiates with Cartier, 38 ; seized by Cartier, 
38-39 ; fate of, 40. See also Domagaya. 

Tailla, Indian tribe, village of, 34. 

Talon, Jean Baptiste, Intendant of New France (1665-1668), prudence of. 375; 
appointed intendant, 378; arrives at Quebec, 378-379; tariff published by, 
383 ; ability of, 384 ; policy inspired by, 384 ; instructed to circumvent 
Jesuits, 384-385 ; manufactures encouraged by, 385 ; sends prospectors to 
Lake Superior, 386; encourages expansion, 390; returns to France, (1668) 
394. 440, (lt;72) 436, 454; to investigate charges against De Mezy, 432; 
opposed to Laval, 433, 435; holds Jesuits responsible for action of converts, 
433 ; secures return of Uccollets, 440 ; susjx uds prohibitive acts on sale of 
brandy. 454; advis'^s study of navigation, 469; at Jesuit college, 471 ; builds 
first brewery, 500, 510; characteristics of, 506; deputes Jesuits to watch 
Kngllfili, 516; Jean Talon cited, 512 note. 

Tnmjuay, .\bh6 Cyprien, Diet. (}(n(alo<)ique, cited, 219. 

Tajcs, severity of, In France, 478 ; not levied in Canada, 478, 522 note. See also 
Tithes. 

Teniiscamtngue, Que.. Indian population, 370. note. 
Tcaacrii, , examines or* .s, ."'.so. 

Theatricals, at Quebec, 325. 401-403, 4H9. See also Rallet. 
Theft, Instances of, 47, 321, 329. Src also Punishments. 

Thtminis t'ardaillac, Pons de Law^i/re, Man'chal de, acts for CondO, 124, 139; 

demands salary due Condr-, 127, 139. 
"The Tree," 3l!l ; sketch of. 322 notr. 
Thirty Years' ^Var, effect of, in Canada, 244, 276. 



594 



INDEX. 



Thomas, , a Huguenot, abjures heresy, 321. 

Three Bourgs, purpose of, 373 note. 

Three Rivers, original country of Iroquois, 54-55 ; Montagnais join Champlain at, 
96, 97 ; Indian fair at, 120, 131, 148-149, 162 ; Le Caron and D'Olbeau at, 
120; Champlain at, 120, 121; Pontgrave at, 120, 149, 150; hostile Indians 
at, 128; Jesuit mission at, 130, 240, 287, 315, 331, 336, 462; Boule, 131; 
Guers sent to, to watch rival traders, 145 ; Indian council at, 179, 283-284 ; 
Jesuit lands, 230, 323; Brebeuf and Daniel at, 232; firearms found with 
Indians of, 245; Montmagny at, 245, 247, 283; arrival of Hurons at, 247; 
seigneurial grants near, 264 ; Iroquois near, 265, 266, 275 ; dissatisfaction at, 
279, 280; syndics of, 281, 289, 299, 326; fur trade at, 281, 284, 287, 300; 
salary of Governor of, 294. 299; troops for, 294, 336, 337; weakness of, 
298, 315; Iroquois defeated at, 300, 349; Lallemant at, 320, 324; duel 
at, 320, 321; Duplessis-Bochart killed at, 336; attempt to fortify, 336; at- 
tacked by Iroquois, 336, 337, 349 ; Buteux starts from, 336 ; Lambert at, 337 ; 
protected by Montreal, 364 ; earthquake at, 367 ; courts established, 374 ; 
population (1666), 379; first school in Canada at, 462; Ursulines at, 466. 
See also Commercial Companies. 

Thxvaites, Reuben Gold, edition of Jesuit Relations cited, 307 note, 312, 367. 

Tibaut, , French sea captain, Champlain with, 101, 104. 

Tilly, , Delisle de. Commandant at Fort Bourbon, 537. 

Tin, use of, for roofs, 512. 

Tiontates. See Petuns. 

Tithes, popular view of, 440 ; for support of seminary, 444-445, 478-479 ; ordi- 
nance of 1663, 445; before the Council, 445, 447, 448, 448 note; text of ordi- 
nance, 445 ; opposed by habitants, 445-446, 447 ; ordinance of De Tracy, 447 ; 
manner of payment, 447 ; decree of the king, 447 ; ordinance of 1707, 448, 
449, 509. See also Laval. 

Tobacco, cultivated at Quebec, 35. 

Torcapel, Jean, priest, arrives in Canada, 408 ; appointed cur6 of parish of Quebec, 

421-422. 
Tordesillas, treaty of, 14. 

Toscanelli, Palo del Pozzo dei, Florentine astronomer, advises Columbus, 8, 13. 

Tosles, Pierre de, remains in Quebec, 198. 

Toudamans (Tsonnontouans) , Indian tribe, location of, 32, 59 note. 
Toulouse, France, 41, 42 : inquisition at, 113. 

Tours, France, Champlain secures edict at, 139 ; value of its livre, 175 note; 
Marie de I'lncarnation in convent at, 259 ; nuns of, chosen for Canada mis- 
sion, 260. 

Tracy, Alexandre de Proiiville, Marquis de, peace made by, with Iroquois, 352, 
383 ; to command the royal troops in Canada, 378, 383 ; visits West Indies, 
378 ; arrives in Canada^ 378 ; registers edict establishing West India Com- 
pany, 378 ; campaign against Iroquois, 383 ; returns to France. 383 ; to recon- 
cile civil and ecclesiastical powers, 383, 435 ; to investigate charges against 
De Mezy, 432 ; ordinance on tithes, 447. 

Trade, effect of monopolies in, on colonists, 18, 279, 294; titles offered to traders, 
66, 208-209 ; policy of Henry IV.. 95 ; reciprocity treaty between New Eng- 
land and New Prance, 303, 304-305, 310, 311, 312; treaty of Becancour, 
356 ; opportunities of New England, 382-383 ; fostered by Talon, 385 ; forbidden 
with New England, 492; tariff rates, 511-512; Quebec exports, 522. See also 
Commercial Companies, Fur trade. Liquor traffic. 

Trefort, , Rochelle trader, desires to accompany Champlain, 100. 

Tronquet, , delegate to France, 287 ; in church procession, 326. 

Tronson, , Sulpician, recommends Saint Vallier, 488 note. 

Troyes, Chevalier de, expedition against English at Hudson Bay, 520, 523. 



INDEX. 



595 



Turgeon, , Bishop, property bought by, 498. 

Turnips, remedy for scurvy, 37, 46. 

Tuscaroras, Iroquois tribe, sixth nation of league, 361. 

Ursuline Convent, Quelcc. site of garden of, 87; Bemi^res. administrator of, 
259; site chosen, 261; picture of. 282; destroyed by fire (1050), 282. 351, 
(1686) 465, 408; opened to Huron refugees, 303, 351-352; fortified against 
Iroquois, 354-355; inmates of (1681), 464; nurses sent from, to Three 
Rivers, 466 ; site of, 408. 

Ursuline Convent, Meaux, France, founded by Mme. De Champlain, 167. 

Ursuline Convent, Tours, France, Marie de I'Incarnation in, 259-260; interest in 
Canada missions, 260. 

UrsuUnes, order of nuns, founding of, 114. 258; devotion, 250, 282, 408; founder, 
258 ; object, 258 ; sketch of, 258 ; sail for Canada. 261 ; arrive in Canada, 
261-262, 269, 407 ; open school in Quebec, 262 ; lack pupils, 263 ; change 
dwelling, 282 ; house built for, by Mme. de la Peltrie. 282 ; influence of, 
282-283, 408 ; shelter Huron refugees, 303 ; lands of, 318, 323-324, 494, 495, 
504 ; religious and social observances. 319, 320 ; servants of, fight duel, 320 ; 
chaplain of. trades in furs, 326; mistake of. 329; besieged by Iroquois, 354- 
355 ; Vignal chaplain to, 407-408 ; educational work of, 465-466 ; protest 
against encroachment on property. 504: Chronique de I'Ordre des, 167. 

Utrecht, peace of, effect on Hudson Bay fur trade, 520 

Valois, Louis do. .Jesuit, recommends St. "S'allier, 488 note. 

Vauban, Sebastian le Prrcstre, Marshal of France, military engineer, consulted on 

fortifications of Quebec, 502. 
Vauhoufjon. See Chauvigny. 
Vaudois. See Waldenses. 

Vaudreuil, Philippe de Rifjault, Marquis de, Governor of Canada (1703-1725), 
burial place of, 242, 356 ; cited, 385 ; social laxity under administration of, 
405-406. 

Vaudreuil, Louise Elizabeth (n6e Joybert), Marquise de. sketch of, 406. 

Velasco, , Spanish captain, reputed first to ascend St. Lawrence, cited by 

Charlevoix, 19. 

Ventadour, Henri de Levis, due de. Viceroy of New France, authorizes Champlain 
to seize free traders, 141; succeeds Montmorenci, j 70 ; character of, 170; 
awards Huron l)oy to .Jesuits, 170; succeeded by Richelieu. 206. 

Verazzano, Giovanni da, Italian navigator, stimulus of expedition of, 16. 

Verazznno, Sra of, location, 20-21; sought by Cartier, 22; Canada and Hochelaga 
Islands in, 24. 

Vespucci. Ameriffo, in More's Utopia, 12; exponent of Italian influence in settle- 
ment of America. 13, 14-15. 
Vicotnti, a holding under feudal tenure, 80, 237. See also Feudal system. 
Vicar-apostolic, powers of, 419 note. 

Vitl. Nicolas. Rerollet. arrives in Canada, 164; with Hurons, 165-166; drowning 

of. 175-176; affection for Indian child. 176. 
Viennc, Marie, death of, 119; burial, 122. 
Vigcr, Louis, courcur dc bois, text of contract. 536-538. 
Viger-Temixcouata , Que, Indian population, 370 note. 

Vignnl (Vignnrd), Guillaume, Sulpician, slain by Iroquois, 358; chaplain of Ursu- 
lines. 407-408. 

Vignan. Nicolas dc, fal.se stories of discoveries, 109-110. 

Vignicr, , negotiates purchase of viceroyalty of New France, 139. 

Villars. , Mme. de, sponsor of Huron convert, 176. 

Villcbnn, , Robineau. Sleur de, sent to France to consult on fortifications of 

Quebec. 502. 

Villegagnon, Nicolas Durand de, Huguenot colonizer, 08. 



S96 



INDEX. 



Ville-Marie, appellation of Montreal, Montmagny opposes settlement of, 272. 
See also Montreal. 

Villemenon, , Intendant to the Admiralty, letters to Champlain, 147, 149. 

VUleneuve, Mathieu Amyot, Sieur de, plan of Quebec, 481. 

Yilleray, Rouer de, dismissed from council, 429 ; in Compagnie du Nord, 533, 535, 
536. 

Vimont, Barthelemp, Jesuit, sails for Canada, 261 ; superior of Canadian mission, 
269 ; arrives at Montreal, 274 ; succeeded by Lalemant, 284 ; praises piety 
of soldiers, 284 ; deliberations on fur trade of Sillery, 290 ; grants lands to 
nuns, 318, 323; obtains patent appointing superior of Jesuits vicar-general, 
413; Remion (1640), 241. 

Violette, , shot for selling brandy, 427. 

Virgin Mary, intercession asked for scurvy-stricken, 29-30 ; patroness of Quebec 
church, 249 ; celebration of the Assumption, 255-256, 263 ; chapel dedicated 
to, 398. 

Virginia, colony, theological and political contentions in, 17, 63 ; French captives 
taken to, 77 ; colonized by trading companies, 84, 106, 156 ; first Indian mas- 
sacre in, 93 ; republican tendencies obnoxious to France, 137 ; communistic 
constitution, 156-157 ; receive representative government, 157-158 ; progress 
compared to that of Canada, 158, 238, 265, 381 ; characteristics of colonists, 
159 ; hatred of French Catholicism, 159 ; colonists lack enterprise. 247 ; trade 
injured by English wars, 310. See also Colonies, Commercial Companies. 

Voltaire (pseud, of Frangois-Marie Arouet), commends Jesuits, 474. 

Vvil (Will), Daniel, shot for heresy, 425. 

Wages. See Labor. 

Waldenses, persecution of, 113; organization of religious orders due to heresy of, 
114. 

Walker, Sir Hovenden, loss of fleet celebrated in Quebec, 398 ; effect of attempt on 

French government, 504. 
Walloons, settled on the Hudson, 84. 
Walter, William. See Walton, William. 

Walton, William, New England minister, entertains Druillettes, 309. 
Wampum, Cartier crowned with, 43. 
Water system of Quebec, 493-494. 

Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of, advises fortification of Quebec, 504. 
Welshmen, potential colonization of, 13. 

West India Islands, mark limits of Portuguese discovery, 14 ; trade of, 20'5, 310. 

See also Commercial Companies. 
Wheat, brought to Cap Rouge, 48 ; planted at Quebec, 89 ; samples taken to 

France, 120 ; sent from Quebec, 329 ; exported, 385, 522 ; corner in, 511. 
William III. of England, referred to by Frontenac, 397 ; effect of accession on 

Canada, 399 : apology of directors of Hudson's Bay Company to, 517 note. 
William and Mary College, founded, 462. 
William,s, Roger, victim of religious intolerance, 76. 
Wilson, Sir Daniel, cited. 53-54, 56. 
Windward Islands, Columbus at, 8. 

Winslow, Edward, London agent of Massachusetts colony, 306; urged to aid in 
resisting Iroquois, 308. 

Winslow, John, New England trader, welcomes Druillettes, 306 ; encourages Druil- 
lettes, 309. 

Winthrop, John, Sr., Governor of Massachusetts, negotiates with Montmagny, 
288, 308 note. 

Winthrop, John, Jr., Governor of Connecticut, Druillettes appeals to, 308 ; lineage 

of, 308 note. 
Wisconsin River, Marquette and Joliet at, 390. 



INDEX. 



597 



Witchcraft, wise treatment of, in Canada, 425. Sec also Punishments. 
Wolfe, James, attempt cn Quebec. 397. 

WoUey (Wooley). Charles, Tico Years' Journal in New York, cited, 523. 
Wyandots, branch of Hurons, 53. 
Xaintongeais, Jean Alphonse, pilot, 46. 
Xaiier, St. Francis. See St. Francis Xavier. 
Yale University, founded. 4G2. 

Yan, , New England ship captain, Drui^ettes with, 309. 



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